An 80-year-old man, Pa Aremu Shojobi, has been arrested by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) with 14 kilograms of cannabis. According to the agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, Shojobi admitted to selling illicit drugs for 25 years.
The NDLEA revealed that the suspect sourced the drugs from the Benin Republic. Babafemi explained, “Operatives from the Lagos State Strategic Command apprehended Pa Aremu Shojobi on Friday, September 20, at his home in Iyana Ipaja with 14 kilograms of cannabis.
Shojobi confessed to being in the illicit drug trade for 25 years and stated that he sourced his supply from Benin Republic, selling to customers from his residence daily between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.”
Additionally, Babafemi noted that the agency seized 25 million pills of tapentadol, an opioid three times stronger than tramadol, along with 350,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup at the Tin Can Port in Lagos.
These seizures, made on September 17 and 20, 2024, from three containers under surveillance, have a combined street value of over N16 billion. The agency, in collaboration with the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies, conducted thorough examinations of the shipments.
In another operation on September 18, NDLEA operatives raided the homes of a local leader, Alhaji Bashir Mohammed Talba, in Badagry West LCDA, Lagos. A total of 226 kilograms of cannabis was recovered from his two wives and son, though Talba remains at large.
His first wife, Asma’u Bashiru, and son, Sadat Bashiru, were found with 57.6 kilograms of cannabis, while his second wife, Hauwa Bashir, was found with 168.6 kilograms at another residence.
Babafemi further reported that 390 kilograms of a cannabis strain known as Arizona were seized from a Mitsubishi delivery van in the Ojo area on September 16.
At the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, a 38-year-old drug mule, Okafor Ifeanyi Anthony, was arrested on September 15 while attempting to board a Qatar Airlines flight to Iran via Doha. He had swallowed 76 wraps of cocaine weighing 1.267 kilograms, which he later excreted over three days.
In other operations, NDLEA officers in Kogi State intercepted 700,000 pills of exol-5 along the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja Expressway, while a suspect, Udemefuna Chibuike, was arrested in Niger State with various drugs, including tramadol and codeine-based products.
In Port Harcourt, a suspect, Ogochukwu Paul, was caught transporting 213 kilograms of cannabis, and in Plateau State, a wanted suspect, Jonathan Ali Abuttur, was arrested with 808 kilograms of cannabis concealed in sugar and fertilizer bags. Kwara State operatives also apprehended Shaibu Musa with 28 kilograms of cannabis.
 with 14 kilograms of cannabis. According to the agency's spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, Shojobi admitted to selling illicit drugs for 25 years.){kind=link}