Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Ijero local council of Ekiti State Babatunde Babade has been arrested for allegedly trafficking illicit drugs.
Babade, 45, said to have been caught with 52.5kg of skunk, was arrested alongside two others Ilesanmi Shola, 35, and Babajide Johnson, 45.
Babade said that officials of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) arrested him after some security agents had allegedly freed him upon giving them two bags of skunk and N60,000.
He neither named the security agents nor their agencies.
NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi said in a statement yesterday that the transport union chief was caught with the illicit substance in Akure, the Ondo State capital, following intelligence.
Babade was allegedly conveying bags of the banned drug in his 1997 model blue Mazda car with registration number: Ekiti JER194 AE from Akure to Ekiti state, the statement claimed.
“Babade, popularly called BB, was taken into custody along with others soon after his arrest about 2pm on Sunday 18th July, 2021 for interrogation. In his statement, he admitted he owns the vehicle used for conveying the drug. He further stated that the car was earlier intercepted by some security agents who detained the two other suspects, his car and eight bags containing cannabis sativa while his brother who drove the vehicle fled.
“He claimed that following his intervention, the security agents released the suspects and his car to him after taking two of the eight bags containing the drug and N60,000 from him, before he later ran into NDLEA officers while on his way back to Ekiti.”
Babafemi also said officers of the Benue State command of the Agency intercepted another suspected interstate drug trafficker, 29-year-old Odinaka Ugwuanyi, along Apir Road, Makurdi.
He was caught with 124,000 tablets of Tramadol, Diazepam and Exol-5 altogether weighing 22.55kg.