The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has apprehended two elderly men, aged 84 and 75, for their alleged involvement in selling illicit drugs to secondary school students in Umuahia, Abia State. The suspects, identified as Godfrey Orji, an 84-year-old pensioner, and Godwin Obulunbiya Obiora, a 75-year-old patent medicine store owner, were arrested in separate operations by operatives of the agency. According to a statement by the NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, Obiora was arrested on June 19, 2026, following intelligence reports that he was selling illicit substances to young students and other users from his store located on Club Road, Umuahia. A search of his premises led to the recovery of 4.64 kilograms of opioids, including tramadol and diazepam. In a separate case, Orji was apprehended after he was caught supplying illicit drugs to two teenage students at Saint Silas Secondary School, Old Umuahia. Security guards at the school handed him over to the police, who subsequently transferred him to the NDLEA. During interrogation, one of the teenagers, a 15-year-old Senior Secondary School Two student, confessed that Orji regularly supplied him with drugs, which he took and also sold to fellow students. While the two elderly suspects are set to be prosecuted, the NDLEA has placed the affected students under counselling and rehabilitation programmes. The arrests come as the Federal Government has introduced mandatory drug integrity tests for students in secondary and tertiary institutions nationwide as part of a broader strategy to curb substance abuse in the education sector.
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