The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has arrested two elderly men for allegedly supplying and selling illicit drugs to secondary school students in Umuahia, the Abia State capital.
The suspects, identified as 84-year-old Godfrey Orji and 75-year-old Godwin Obulunbiya Obiora, were picked up in separate operations by operatives of the agency.
According to a statement on Sunday by NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, Obiora was arrested on June 19 following intelligence reports that he was selling illicit substances to students and other users from his patent medicine store.
Babafemi said, “Pa Obiora was arrested by NDLEA operatives on Friday, 19th June 2026, following credible intelligence that he was selling illicit substances to young students and others in his patent medicine store located at 4 Club Road, Umuahia, where 4.64 kilograms of opioids, including tramadol and diazepam, were recovered from him during a search of his premises.”
The agency said Orji, a pensioner, was arrested after he was caught supplying illicit drugs to students of Saint Silas Secondary School, Old Umuahia.
“In his case, Pa Orji, who is a pensioner and also into the illicit drug trade, was nabbed by security guards at Saint Silas Secondary School, Old Umuahia, for supplying illicit drugs to two teenage students in the school. The guards thereafter handed them over to the police, who in turn transferred them to NDLEA on Thursday, 18th June,” Babafemi stated.
He disclosed that one of the teenagers, a 15-year-old Senior Secondary School Two student, admitted during interrogation that the suspect regularly supplied him with drugs.
“In his statement, one of the two teenagers, a 15-year-old SS2 student, claimed the 84-year-old grandpa supplies him the drugs, which he takes and also sells to fellow students,” the statement added.
The NDLEA said while the two elderly suspects would be prosecuted, the students had been placed on counselling and rehabilitation programmes.
(Ripples)
