The Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency said security operatives suspected to be fake attacked its operatives and help a drug suspect in custody escape.
The spokesperson of NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, said that their operatives were attacked while on the trail of a truck conveying a drug suspect and illicit drugs.
The incident occurred on Tuesday on Awolowo road, Ikoyi, Lagos State.
Babafemi said that their operatives seized the truck and drug consignment but the security operatives escaped with the suspected drug baron.
“They went away with the drug suspect in their vehicle but we got support from the soldiers from nearby military formations as well as reinforcement of our men from the state headquarters,” he said.
“We got the drugs.”
Speaking on why he described the security operatives as fake, Babafemi said that “the reason we called them suspected fake security operatives is that no genuine officers paid with taxpayers money will do the kind of things that they are doing by escorting drug cartels … to escape security scrutiny.”
The NDLEA’s Lagos State Commander, Umar Adoro, said the operation was carried out based on intelligence.
“We ambushed the truck. We knew when they finished loading and when they started their movement and we chose to accost the truck on Awolowo road, as that would determine whether the drugs were being conveyed to the mainland or offshore,” Adoro was quoted as saying at a press briefing on Tuesday.
“We waited until midnight before the truck was sighted and we intercepted it. Unfortunately, we were distracted because when the truck driver and the vehicle were intercepted, unidentified security agents appeared and insisted that the truck must be allowed to continue its movement, we said where and they could not tell us.
“There was pandemonium as the security agents started shooting in the air which attracted the Army from the Medical corp. They reinforced our officers before reinforcement came from my office.
“But the unidentified security agency took the driver and escaped with him. But we successfully got the truck. Our officers’ vehicle that was used to barricade the truck was damaged by the truck driver and unidentified security agents.”
