Nine-Month Pregnant Rivers Woman Caught with Hemp

A nine-month pregnant woman, Kate Ibinabo, has been arrested with 34.4 kilogramme of cannabis sativa in the Okrika area of Rivers State.

The spokesperson for the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday, said the 29-year-old was arrested on Saturday, December 3.

He, however, said the NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (retd.), had directed that Ibinabo be granted administrative bail pending when she’s delivered of her baby after which she would return to be prosecuted for her crime.

Babafemi noted that as of the time of her arrest, she was nine-month pregnant.

He added that a 60-year-old grandmother was also arrested with illicit drugs in Ibadan, Oyo State, in a follow-up operation following the seizure of 5.5kg of the Loud variant of cannabis imported into the country from South Africa.

“The consignment, which she claimed was sent to her by her daughter, was concealed in two giant electronic speakers, as part of a consolidated cargo that arrived at the NAHCO import shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, on board an Air Peace airline flight.

“Operatives also intercepted 1.4kg of methamphetamine concealed inside custard tins packed among cosmetics and foodstuffs going to Brazil via Doha on a Qatar Airways flight.

“A cargo agent, Fausat Salako, who brought the bag containing the illicit drug to the airport, and an intending passenger to Brazil, Anyanwu Christian, who was to travel with the consignment, were arrested,” the statement added.

In Abuja, NDLEA operatives reportedly stormed the warehouse of a notorious drug lord and ex-convict, Ibrahim Momoh, alias Ibrahim Bendel, who escaped from prison to return to his trade and recovered 81 jumbo bags of cannabis weighing 1,278kgs.

“Though the fleeing drug dealer is still at large and wanted by the agency, his warehouse keeper, a 55-year-old Ghanaian, Richard Gordon, was arrested,” the statement added.

Babafemi noted that Momoh was first arrested on November 27, 2014, with the same substance weighing 385.1kg, prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on April 22, 2020, but escaped from jail after three months.

Meanwhile, no fewer than 2,000 bottles of codeine- syrup were seized in a commercial bus by operatives on Friday, December 2, along the Lokoja-Abuja Expressway.