Nollywood Filmmaker and Others Arrested Over Illicit Drug Shipments
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA have arrested a wanted drug kingpin and Lagos socialite, 61-year-old Alhaja Aishat Ajoke Elediye,, on New Year’s Day in her mansion in the Okota area of Lagos following the interception of a truckload of illicit drug consignment from her staff same day.
Alhaji Ajoke, known in the drug underworld and social circle as “Iya Ruka,” has her true identity shrouded in mystery for years while she remained on the wanted list of NDLEA for leading one of the drug cartels operating from the Mushin area of Lagos. The lid was, however, blown off her invincibility last Wednesday when NDLEA operatives acting on intelligence intercepted a white Izuzu truck carrying 44 jumbo sacks containing 1,540 kilograms of imported cannabis and driven by one of her staff, 41-year-old Abideen Adio.
The operatives subsequently stormed her hideout at 33 Adebayo Oyewole Street, off Ago Palace Way, Okota, where she was arrested.
According to the NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi in a statement on Sunday, on the surface, Alhaja Ajoke is a businesswoman who imports fabrics and shoes from China, but beneath is a massive illicit drug trade. She is also recognized as the Iyalaje of Blessing Sisters, an influential club of society women in Lagos.
Babafemi said in another significant operation, NDLEA officers on Friday, 27th December 2024, arrested a US-trained Hollywood and Nollywood filmmaker, Emeka Mbadiwe, who is also a motivational speaker at his Lekki Hotel room following the arrest of his partner, Uzoekwe Ugochukwu,
earlier the same day, at a warehouse in Ajao estate Ikeja, where Mbadiwe sent him to collect a shipment of 33 parcels of Loud, an intense strain of cannabis weighing 17.3 kilogrammes, which arrived at the Import shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on 24th December 2024 from the United States on a Delta Airline flight, concealed in large wooden boxes.
In Kwara state, a fresh graduate, Khadijat Abdulraheem, 24, and a 20-year-old student of the University of Ilorin, Ayomide Morakinyo, were on Sunday, 29th December 2024 arrested by NDLEA operatives at Tanke-University of Ilorin road, Oke Odo, Ilorin based on credible intelligence that they were producing and selling drug-laced cupcakes to students in the community. When their apartment was searched, 42 pieces of drugged cakes were recovered from them.
Babafemi also said an ex-convict, Sodade Eniola, who was arrested by operatives of the Tincan Command of NDLEA in June 2024 for drug trafficking, prosecuted and sentenced to four years in prison, had been arrested again by officers of the MMIA Strategic Command of the agency for passport racketeering. Earlier, when he was convicted by a Federal High Court in Lagos on 14th June 2024, the trial judge gave him an option of paying N750,000 fine, which he paid and was let go.
The spokesman said, however, that in a series of operations in December 2024, NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport’s export shed intercepted no fewer than 52 passports from different countries from shipments going to Canada, Russia, and other countries concealed in shoe soles and food items. Further investigations led to the arrest of four members of three syndicates involved in the racket.
The arrested suspects include Sodade Eniola, Ayinde Awwal, Salaudeen Ayode, and Sheriff Bamigbade. Both the exhibits and the suspects were handed over last Monday to the Zonal Command of the Nigerian Immigration Service in Lagos for further investigation and possible prosecution.
Babafemi said not less than 316 800 bottles of codeine-based syrup were recovered from two containers by NDLEA officers at the Port Harcourt Ports Complex, Onne Rivers state, during a joint examination of the shipments with men of Nigeria Customs and other security agencies last Tuesday. He disclosed that the seizure followed credible intelligence processed by the agency’s Port Harcourt Port Command.
In Kano, NDLEA operatives last Tuesday, 31st December 2024, raided Mafarki, Dan Dishe area of Dala LG, where they recovered 149,090 pills of tramadol and exol-5 from a local dealer, 45-year-old Ismail Muhammad.
Babafemi said that the agency’s commands and formations across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization activities in schools, worship centers, workplaces, and communities, among other places, with the same vigor in the past week.
Meanwhile, while commending the officers and men of the MMIA, Lagos, Kano, PHPC, and Kwara Commands of the agency for the arrests and seizures, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) stated that their operational successes and those of their compatriots across the country, especially their balanced approach to drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts, are well appreciated.
