NDLEA Arrests Church Leader, Seizes 624,000 Illicit Drugs In Six Days
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a church general overseer and 13 other suspects while confiscating 624,206 pills of various illicit substances during operations across five states between August 3 and 9, 2025.
According to the NDLEA, the raids conducted in Lagos, Nasarawa, Kano, Gombe, and Edo states resulted in the recovery of cannabis, opioids, synthetic strains, and injectable drugs weighing a combined total of 4,399.57kg.
A statement by NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Mr. Femi Babafemi, said the suspects employed various smuggling tactics, including ferrying drugs through waterways, concealing them in vehicles, and hiding consignments in residential and uncompleted buildings.
Babafemi said the operatives arrested Prophet Adefolusho Aanu Olasele (alias Abbas Ajakaiye), founder and General Overseer of The Turn of Mercy Church, at his church in Okun Ajah, Ogombo Road, Lekki, Lagos.
Olasele was said to have fled to Ghana twice after evading arrest in connection with the seizure of 200kg of “Ghana Loud” on June 4 and 700kg on July 6.
Babafemi wrote, “Operatives waited for him since morning to conclude the Sunday worship service in the evening before moving in on him the moment he stepped out of the church premises”.
Olasele reportedly admitted to “ferrying the illicit consignments through the waterways from Ghana into Nigeria”, adding that he had fled to the West African country to hide after he escaped arrest twice in the recent past.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, August 6, NDLEA officers in Kano arrested Umar Adamu Umar, 27, along the Zaria-Kano road with 9kg of Colorado, a synthetic cannabis strain.
On the same day in Edo State, operatives intercepted a white Toyota Hiace bus marked YAB 5522 K at Ewu junction with “23,940 capsules of tramadol, 1,100 tablets of the same opioid, and 400 ampoules of pentazocine injection. The suspect, Taiye Jethro, was arrested”.
On August 7, operatives raided an apartment at Kishi House, Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos. The
The operation led to the arrest of “Benjamin Udo Ukoh and recovery of 32 pouches of Canadian Loud cannabis weighing 15.63kg”.
On August 8, NDLEA officers in Kano nabbed Nura Yahaya, 29, in the Geza area of Kumbotso with 639 blocks of skunk weighing 359kg.
That same day, along the Zaria-Kano road, 30-year-old Usman Musa was arrested with 20,000 tramadol pills and 200 ampoules of diazepam injection.
In a separate raid in Gombe, operatives stormed an uncompleted building in Tudun Wadan Pantami, recovering 550,266 pills of opioids, mainly tramadol, and arrested suspect Usama Isah.
On Saturday, August 9, operatives in Nasarawa recovered 3,093kg of skunk from three suspects — Emmanuel Asoquo Johnny, 51; Okem Raphael, 33; and Chekwube Odo, 25 — at New Karu.
On the same day in Gombe, Ibrahim Adamu, 23, was arrested along Potiskum Road, Bajoga, with 50,000 capsules of tramadol.
NDLEA Arrests Church Leader, Seizes 624,000 Illicit Drugs In Six Days is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
