Drug Trafficking: NDLEA Arrests Ex-Boko Haram Fighter, Traditional Ruler
AREWA AGENDA -The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested an ex-Boko Haram fighter, Alayi Madu; the traditional ruler of Kajola, a border community between Ondo and Edo states, Baale Akinola Adebayo and 35 others over 2.2 tons of illicit drugs seized at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja, Lagos, and in raids across 12 states in the past week.
This was made known to the PRNigeria by the Spokesman of the NDLEA Femi Babafemi on Sunday in Abuja.
He maintained that the 26-year-old Alayi Madu, who was a Boko Haram fighter for 15 years before he surrendered to the Nigerian military in 2021, was intercepted by NDLEA operatives on Thursday 9th March along Abuja-Kaduna express road with 10kgs of skunk, which he said he bought in Ibadan, Oyo state, and was taking to Maiduguri, Borno State, in a sack.
According to the agency’s spokesman, Madu said in his statement that, he is from Banki town, Borno State and joined the notorious terrorist organisation, in 2006 when he was nine years old. He said he repented and surrendered to the military in 2021, after which he underwent rehabilitation and de-radicalisation procedures at Umaru Shehu rehabilitation centre, Maiduguri and Malam Sidi de-radicalization centre, Gombe before he was discharged after spending six months. Thereafter, he traveled to Ibadan, Oyo state where he worked as commercial motorcycle rider (Okada rider) before going into drug trafficking and his eventual arrest along Abuja-Kaduna express road.
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“As part of ongoing operations of NDLEA to mop up illicit drugs across the country ahead of the next round of elections, Agency’s officers in the early hours of Friday 10th March, stormed Kajola forest in Kajola community, a border town between Edo and Ondo state where they destroyed three cannabis farms measuring 39.801546 hectares. The owner of the farms who claims to be the Ba’ale of Kajola, Akinola Adebayo, 35, was arrested on the farm at 2:30am, while two other suspects believed to be his workers: Arikuyeri Abdulrahman, 23 and Habibu Ologun, 25, were also nabbed in a hut near the farms.” Babafemi confirmed
Also according to him “In Kwara, operatives on patrol along along Ilorin-Jebba highway on Tuesday 7th March arrested two suspects: Ismaila Saidu and Dahiru Abdullahi with 50 bags of cannabis sativa weighing 578 kilograms, while in the FCT Abuja, 15 suspects were transferred by the Nigerian Army with 35 bags of cannabis weighing 384.3kg.
In the same vein a 56-year-old suspect, Shinayemà Kelenku was arrested at Tse-kelenku village, Logo LGA, Benue with 36.7kg skunk, while in Delta state, operatives intercepted a suspect, Chimeze Ndukaire, 56, conveying psychotropic substances worth over N30 million in a white Toyota Hiace bus with registration number Lagos FST 279 XS coming from Onitsha to Warri. The vehicle was intercepted on Friday 10th March at G.S.M junction, Asaba based on a tip-off.
While in Kano state, NDLEA operatives on Saturday 11th March raided the Sabon-gari area of Kano where they arrested a suspect, Chukwuebuka Christopher and recovered from him 7,740 bottles of Codeine based syrup, measuring 774 litres, concealed inside 43 sacks of garlic.
Meanwhile the Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) commended the officers, men and women of MMIA, Idiroko, Edo, Kaduna, Akwa Ibom, Kogi, Ogun, Gombe, Lagos, Kwara, FCT, Benue, Delta and Kano Commands of the Agency for their diligence and commitment to work. He charged them and their compatriots across other commands not to rest on their oars.
