We sell N15,000 heroin every day –20-year-old drug peddler

If 20-year-old Ridwan Aliyu had known that trying to make ‘quick’ money could land him in jail, he probably would have thought twice before becoming a drug dealer.

Aliyu and one Williams Amah, 32, were among the suspected criminals paraded by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad at the Lagos State Police Command Headquarters, Ikeja.

Sitting on the floor and looking quite frightened and confused, Aliyu, who said he just came to Lagos four months ago from Ibadan, said he was arrested at Lagos Island, the first day on his job.

Aliyu said he had gained ‘freedom’ as an apprentice clothes merchant and needed money to set up his own business but that money had been scarce.

“A friend of mine came to Ibadan and told me that he would introduce me to a business in Lagos and I would make quick and big money if I could be a part of it. He painted the business so well that I had no choice but to join him,” Aliyu said.

Aliyu said when he found out that the business his friend was talking about was drug peddling, he had to jump at it in order to make money he said he required to set up his trade.

Unfortunately for him, the day he started the job was the day he was nabbed by the police.

“If I had known, I wouldn’t have agreed to this. It was actually my first day on the job that I was caught. We sold between N10,000 and N15,000 worth of heroin every day. I don’t even use the drugs. My job was to sell to the users but I hadn’t even sold any that day. People who don’t have money would come and drop their phones in exchange for the drugs,” he said.

Holding a palm-size scale used to measure the drug, Aliyu said one gram of heroin sells for as much as N7,000.

Amah, his partner who was also arrested looked unperturbed as he sat on the floor at the police command.

While admitting to our correspondent that he had been a heroin user for the last 15 years, the 32-year-old Abia State indigene claimed he was not an armed robber.

“I was caught and arrested where I was smoking. My wife knows I use drug. They (police) just came and arrested me while I was sleeping. I didn’t steal. Nobody caught me with any arms. I don’t sell; I only smoke drugs. I am a trader; I hawk clothes in any part of Lagos. I am not a thief, I can never be a thief,” he said.

The police said they were arrested after a robbery. Some items, which they allegedly stole from their victims, were found in their hideout, according to the police.