The Nationwide Drug Regulation Enforcement Company (NDLEA) has arrested a number of people, together with a Lagos socialite and alleged drug kingpin and Nollywood filmmaker, in reference to a drug deal.
The company introduced that the 12 months started with a sequence of high-profile arrests and drug seizures throughout Lagos, Kwara, Kano, and Rivers states.
This info was disclosed in an announcement by the NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday.
In accordance with the assertion, In Lagos, NDLEA operatives arrested 61-year-old Alhaja Aishat Feyisara Ajoke Elediye, a wished drug kingpin, on Wednesday, January 1, 2025, at her mansion within the Okota space. This arrest adopted the interception of a truckload of illicit medicine despatched by her workers on the identical day.
Alhaja Ajoke, recognized within the drug underworld as “Iya Ruka,” had lengthy stored her true identification hidden whereas remaining on NDLEA’s wished listing for main a drug cartel working from Mushin, Lagos.
Her cowl was blown when NDLEA operatives, appearing on intelligence, intercepted a white Isuzu truck carrying 44 jumbo sacks containing 1,540 kilograms of imported hashish. The truck was pushed by considered one of her workers members, 41-year-old Abideen Adio.
Following the interception, NDLEA operatives stormed her hideout at 33 Adebayo Oyewole Avenue, off In the past Palace Means, Okota, the place they arrested her.
On the floor, Alhaja Ajoke presents herself as a businesswoman importing materials and footwear from China, however beneath this persona lies a serious illicit drug operation. She is often known as the Iyalaje of Blessing Sisters, an influential girls’s membership in Lagos.
On December 27, 2024, NDLEA officers arrested Emeka Emmanuel Mbadiwe, a US-trained filmmaker and motivational speaker, at his resort room in Lekki.
In accordance with Babafemi, Mbadiwe’s arrest adopted that of his companion, Uzoekwe Ugochukwu James, earlier the identical day.
“James had been dispatched by Mbadiwe to gather a cargo of medicine from a warehouse in Ajao Property, Ikeja. The consignment, which consisted of 33 parcels of Loud, a potent pressure of hashish weighing 17.30 kilograms, arrived on the Murtala Muhammed Worldwide Airport (MMIA) on December 24, 2024.
“It had been hid in giant wood containers and flown in from the US through a Delta Airways flight,” he defined.
In Kwara State, Babafemi acknowledged that two women have been arrested on Sunday, December 29, 2024, for producing and promoting drug-laced cupcakes to college students.
“Khadijat Abdulraheem, a 24-year-old graduate, and Ayomide Morakinyo, a 20-year-old University of Ilorin scholar, have been apprehended after NDLEA operatives uncovered 42 drug-laced desserts of their condominium close to the Tanke-University of Ilorin highway,” he famous.
The assertion added that an ex-convict, Sodade Sunday Eniola, was additionally arrested by operatives of the Tincan Command of NDLEA in June 2024, for drug trafficking, prosecuted and sentenced to 4 years in jail has been arrested once more by officers of the MMIA Strategic Command of the Company for passport racketeering.
“When he was convicted by a Federal Excessive Courtroom in Lagos on 14th June 2024, the trial decide gave him an possibility of paying N750,000 positive, which he paid and was let go.
“Nevertheless, in a sequence of operations in December 2024, NDLEA operatives on the export shed of the Lagos airport intercepted no fewer than 52 passports of various international locations from shipments going to Canada, Russia, and different international locations hid in shoe soles and meals objects.
Additional investigations led to the arrest of 4 members of three syndicates concerned within the racket.
“The arrested suspects embody: Sodade Sunday Eniola; Ayinde Saheed Awwal; Salaudeen Afeez Ayode; and Sheriff Adebayo Bamigbade.
“Each the displays and the suspects have been on Monday thirtieth December 2024 handed over to the Zonal Command of the Nigerian Immigration Service in Lagos for additional investigation and doable prosecution,” it acknowledged.
