Crime
PHOTOS: NDLEA arrests wanted drug kingpin with 11.6kg cocaine, meth
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have arrested a wanted 60-year-old drug kingpin, Okpara Paul Chigozie, ending seven years of evading the long arm of the law.
NDLEA said the suspect was caught attempting to ship large quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine to the Southeast and other parts of the country.
This was made known in a statement by Femi Babafemi, Director, Media & Advocacy, NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja.
Babafemi disclosed that Okpara, who has been on the wanted list of NDLEA since 2019, was eventually nabbed at his hideout at 72 Michael Ojo Street, Isheri in the Ojo area of Lagos State on Sunday last week following the interception of some of his consignments at Ilasamaja along Apapa-Oshodi expressway.
In the early morning operation, a team of NDLEA officers, acting on credible intelligence, arrested one of Okpara’s couriers, 51-year-old Achebe Kenneth Nnamdi, while heading to Onitsha, Anambra State, in a white Toyota Sienna vehicle.
The agency’s sniffer dogs were subsequently brought in to search the vehicle, after which 7.6 kilograms of cocaine and 900 grams of methamphetamine were found hidden in body compartments of the space bus.
A follow-up operation was promptly carried out at Okpara’s hideout in Isheri, where additional 1.8kg of cocaine and 1.3kg of methamphetamine were recovered from his residence.
At the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja Lagos, NDLEA operatives, in a joint operation with Aviation Security personnel of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), on Wednesday, 16th July, recovered 7,790 pills of tramadol and rohypnol from the luggage of an Italy-bound passenger, Omoregie Nice Uyiosa.
The suspect, who was going to Italy via Istanbul on a Turkish Airlines flight, claimed he purchased the drugs himself, hoping to sell them in Italy at higher prices.
In another arrest at the Lagos airport, NDLEA operatives at the export shed on Thursday, 17th July, intercepted 17 parcels of skunk, a strain of cannabis, weighing 1.70kg concealed in packs of popular cereal, Golden Morn, going to Pakistan as part of a consolidated cargo.
A suspect, Chioba Robert Uchenna, who presented the consignment for shipment, was arrested.
In Lagos, NDLEA operatives, on Saturday, 19th July, raided Sarah Sam Hotels located at 115 Ogudu Road in Kosofe, where different party drugs are being distributed and sold.
The raid followed credible intelligence and surveillance, which confirmed a suspect, Obayemi Oyetade, as the arrowhead of the drug network. At the time of the operation, 1.30kg of chocolate cannabis, 900 grams of gummies, and 22.9 grams of skunk were recovered from Obayemi’s room in the hotel, which is a 20-room facility run as a family business, housing his mother and siblings.
Other items recovered from the hotel include three vehicles.
Three suspects, Onyeka Madu, Monday Nwadishi, and Emmanuel Madu—were, on Saturday, 19th July, arrested during an intelligence-led raid at Narayi High Cost area of Chikun LGA, Kaduna State, where 742.866 kilograms of skunk and Colorado, a synthetic strain of cannabis, were seized from them.
In Kano, Lawan Rabiu was nabbed with 36,000 pills of tramadol along Danbatta-Kazaure road on Wednesday, 16th July.
While a total of 25,000 pills of tramadol and Exol-5 were recovered from a suspect, Aliyu Abubakar, at Gombe roundabout on Friday, 18th July, the duo of Mohammed Adamu and Furaira Idris were arrested the same day with 49 blocks of compressed skunk that weighed 29kg at Kwadom, Yemaltu Deba LGA, Gombe State.
In Borno, NDLEA officers on patrol along Baga Road, Maiduguri, on Saturday, 19th July, intercepted 74,360 pills of opioids in a Mercedes Benz C180 car marked GUB 409 AA and arrested Audu Modu, 44, in connection with the seizure, while in Bayelsa State, a 63-year-old grandma, Akuna Nelson, was on Thursday, 17th July, arrested at Osiri area of Yenagoa in connection with the seizure of 163 litres of skuchies.
Four suspects, Ikechukwu Abugu, 42; Sunday Ani, 18; Chukwu Christian, 46; and Emmanuel Olisakwe, 55, were, on Thursday, 17th July, arrested by NDLEA operatives along Okene-Lokoja highway, Kogi State, in connection with the seizure of 2kg of methamphetamine recovered during a search of their vehicle coming from Onitsha, Anambra State to Minna, Niger State.
In Abia State, NDLEA officers, on Monday, 14th July, raided the base of a notorious drug dealer, Nduka Obi, 39, at 4 Niger Street, Ugwa Road, Aba, where various quantities of tramadol, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and a total of N736,000 monetary exhibit were recovered from him.
While a total of 45,000 pills of tramadol were seized from a suspect, Chisom Okpalaeke, 30, by NDLEA operatives on patrol along Onitsha – Enugu expressway, Enugu State, on Wednesday, 16th July, officers of the Taraba State Command of the agency, the same day, apprehended the duo of Ngwokwoka Thomas, 44, and Mohammed Audu, 44, with 10,000 caps of tramadol and a gram of cannabis at Dan Anacha, Gassol LGA.
Reacting to the development, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), commended the officers and men of MMIA, SOU, Lagos, Kaduna, Osun, Bayelsa, Gombe, Borno, Abia, Kogi, Enugu, and Taraba Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures of the past week.
Marwa also praised their counterparts in all the commands across the country for intensifying a fair balance between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts.
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A man identified as David Moses has confessed to the gruesome killing of a school nurse and a 14-month-old child at a school in the Dawaki area of Abuja, blaming his actions on pressure from an alleged accomplice named Sunday, who is currently at large.
Moses, a security guard deployed to the school, made the confession while being interrogated by journalists at the Federal Capital Territory police command on Friday.
He said he and Sunday had planned to kidnap the victims for ransom, initially demanding ₦250 million before settling for ₦3 million.
“What brought me here is that I killed a child with a nurse in Clear Hope School on July 23. Me and my friend, we demanded for ₦250 ransom. Later on, we later settled for ₦3 million. Which we collected,” he said.
According to him, the incident took a violent turn when a dispute over the ransom money broke out between him and Sunday.
He added that he later sought help and eventually confessed to the police after receiving treatment in a hospital.
“When we collected the money and were sharing it, that was when we had an issue. My friend stabbed me with a knife, took the money, and ran away. I struggled and took myself to someone’s house and told the person what was going on. But I didn’t tell the full truth at that time because I was afraid the community might have killed me immediately.
“I insisted on seeing the police so they could take me to the hospital and I could explain the whole story properly. The man told me to wait while he called the police. When the police came, they took me to the hospital. After I received treatment, they began to ask me what happened, and I started narrating the whole story from the beginning.”
Detailing how the school nurse was killed, Moses said she was lured into a trap under the guise of checking something in a toilet, where Sunday allegedly strangled her with a rope.
Moses said, “I went to call her from her class, while Sunday was hiding in the toilet. When I called her, I told her I wanted to show her something near the front toilet where Sunday was hiding. As we were going, he came out from behind and held the woman. He put a rope around her neck and started strangling her she struggled but eventually became weak.”
The child, he said, was later also taken and killed at Sunday’s insistence.
Moses said, “Then he told me to run and go bring the baby so we could also kill the baby. I said no, that the woman alone was enough. He insisted, saying that if we didn’t bring the baby, the ransom we demanded wouldn’t be enough. So, I went and brought the baby.”
When asked how many people he had killed or kidnapped before, he said, “I have never done such a thing. This was the first time someone pushed me into any evil act.”
Probed further on his relationship with the woman and the baby, he said she gave him ₦300 to buy food the day she was killed.
Moses said, “There’s no relationship. The woman was nice to me. In fact, that very day, she gave me ₦300 to buy food. She had been giving me money to eat even before then.”
Zachariah Fiyinfoluwa, a representative of the security company that employed Moses distanced himself from the crime, saying he was only informed of the disappearance of the nurse and child after the school principal raised an alarm.
“I don’t know anybody called Sunday. The person we posted to the school is David,” he said.
However, under questioning, Fiyinfoluwa admitted that the company failed to properly document Moses’ employment, including failing to keep his guarantor’s information.
“For us not to keep the record, I accept that it’s our fault,” he said.
When pressed further on the company’s responsibility, especially for the safety of persons within the premises, Fiyinfoluwa admitted that supervisors were supposed to routinely visit deployment sites but did not confirm if such oversight occurred at Claire Hope School.
In an interview with the Commissioner of Police, Ajao Adewale said the victims were reported missing on July 23, 2025, from the school the same day, a ransom demand of ₦250 million was made via the caregiver’s phone.
The CP said following an investigation, police operatives arrested Moses, who later confessed to conspiring with his friend, Sunday Irimiya currently at large to carry out the crime.
He said, “On July 23, 2025, the FCT Police Command received a distress report concerning the sudden disappearance of Mrs. Chinyere Anaene, a 55-year-old school nurse and caregiver at Clear Hope Foundation Academy, Dawaki, Abuja, and a toddler identified as Nanenter Asher Yese, aged one year and two months.
“On the same day, the husband of the caregiver received a call on the caregiver’s mobile phone wherein unidentified individuals demanded a ransom of ₦250 million for their release.”
“Despite having killed the victims, they still demanded ₦3 million from the family under the pretence that the victims were alive,” Adewale said.
He said the police have also arrested the school principal, two other security guards, and the Chief Security Officer of the private security company that deployed Moses to the school.
“In the course of our investigation, the police also arrested the school principal, two additional security guards who were meant to be on duty with David Moses, and the Chief Security Officer of the private security company responsible for deploying the guards to the school, ” he said.
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The fine was recommended by Parliament’s Joint Ethics Committee, which found Mashatile in violation of the country’s asset declaration rules.
South Africa Vice President Paul Mashatile has been fined R10,000 by the country’s parliament.
He was fined for failing to declare a diamond gift received from businessman, Louis Liebenberg.
Liebenberg is currently on trial for alleged fraud involving a diamond investment scheme.
The fine was recommended by Parliament’s Joint Ethics Committee, which found Mashatile in violation of the country’s asset declaration rules.
The matter was brought to the committee’s attention by Democratic Alliance (DA) chief whip George Michalakis, who raised concerns after reviewing Mashatile’s asset declarations in March.
In a statement on Thursday, the DA welcomed the committee’s decision and called for a broader investigation into Mashatile’s relationship with Liebenberg.
“There are also questions around the legality of this diamond, its nature, source, and certification,” the party said, adding that both the Vice President and the Department of Justice must provide clarity.
The party also demanded an explanation regarding a reported visit by Liebenberg to Mashatile’s residence in November 2023.
Meanwhile, the Vice President is also under scrutiny over the declaration of two properties valued at R63 million. He has denied ownership, saying the properties belong to his son-in-law.
“People must read. There’s nothing in Parliament that says I own a house. I said I live there. That house is owned by my son-in-law,” Mashatile said in response to questions about the properties. “There is no government money in those houses. So what are you looking for?”
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The Niger State Police Command has arrested a 10-man syndicate in Minna suspected of specialising in the international trafficking of unsuspecting victims, along with 36 undocumented youths of different nationalities.
According to the command’s spokesman, SP Wasiu Abiodun, the syndicate operated under false pretences as travel agents, engaging in the extortion of their victims.
Abiodun revealed that the suspects were arrested on July 18, 2025, at about 12:30 pm, following credible intelligence received about their activities along 123 Quarters, Minna.
Those arrested include Sokou Doumbia, Thiarno Balbe, Hashimu Dauda Kolo, Usman Doumbia, Musa Konate, Lamine Watara, Acine Diouf, Adamu Zarbu, Alhassan Konde and Dango Aminatu.
They were discovered to be nationals of various neighbouring West African countries and primarily spoke French, except for their Nigerian collaborator, Hashimu, who provided accommodation for the syndicate in Minna.
The operation led to the rescue of 36 undocumented youths from countries such as Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea.
He disclosed that, during interrogation, they claimed to have come to Nigeria for an online business.
All the suspects and victims have been transferred to Interpol for further investigation and other necessary actions.
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