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The Ogun State Area Command, Nigeria Customs Service, said on Tuesday intercepted a Toyota Coaster bus conveying 211 parcels of cannabis, along Imeko Afon area of the Idiroko border.
The bus reportedly belongs to the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. It had the number plate FUNAAB 50 B-100 FG. It was intercept on Saturday by Customs operatives on patrol.
The Controller of the command, Sani Madugu, who disclosed the seizure at the command’s headquarters in Abeokuta, adding that the driver of the vehicle, Abolade Bolaji, had been arrested.
Madugu said the driver “concealed parcels of Indian hemp (cannabis) under the bags of rice he was conveying with the vehicle to Abeokuta, when nemesis caught up with him”
Madugu later handed over the narcotic to the NDLEA for further investigation.
Reacting to the interception of the school bus, FUNAAB said it would not interfere in the investigation of the matter, describing it as unfortunate.
The institution’s Head of the Public Relations Directorate, Mrs. Emi Alawode, in a statement, said as a law abiding institution, necessary machinery had been put in place to carry out thorough investigation of the incident.
The statement read in part, “The attention of the university has been drawn to an unfortunate incident that was said to have occurred on Saturday, August 12, 2017, in which one of its drivers, using the university’s official vehicle in his possession, was said to have been apprehended along Olorunda, Ogun State, by law enforcement agents, for allegedly being in possession of substances suspected to have been smuggled.
“Already, the university has put the necessary machinery in place to carry out proper investigations to ascertain what actually transpired on the said date on one hand, while law enforcement agents on the other hand would be allowed and supported to perform their statutory duties in the overall interest of all citizens.”