NDLEA arrests wanted socialite, filmmaker over illicit drug shipments
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has apprehended 61-year-old Alhaja Aishat Feyisara Ajoke Elediye, a notorious drug kingpin, in her Okota mansion, Lagos.
Elediye, also known in criminal circles as “Iya Ruka,” had long evaded justice, eluding authorities while masterminding one of the most feared drug cartels operating from the Mushin area of the state.
The arrest followed an intelligence-led operation by the NDLEA that intercepted a truck carrying 44 jumbo sacks of imported cannabis, weighing 1,540 kilograms, which were sent by her operatives.
The vehicle, a white Izuzu truck driven by one of her staff, 41-year-old Abideen Adio, was flagged down and seized by NDLEA officers. Acting swiftly, the agency moved to Elediye’s residence at 33 Adebayo Oyewole Street, Okota, where she was arrested and taken into custody.
In a statement on Sunday by the Director, Media and Advocacy of the NDLEA, Mr Femi Babafemi, said the arrest of the Lagos socialite followed the interception of a truckload of illicit drug consignment from her staff the same day.
The statement said the lid was however blown off her invincibility on 1 January 2025, 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.
Thereafter, the operatives stormed her hideout at 33 Adebayo Oyewole Street, off Ago Palace Way, Okota, where they arrested her.
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 recognised as the Iyalaje of Blessing Sisters, an influential club of society women in Lagos.
In another major operation, NDLEA officers on 27 December 2024 arrested a US-trained Hollywood and Nollywood filmmaker, Emeka Emmanuel Mbadiwe, at his Lekki hotel room following the arrest of his partner, Uzoekwe Ugochukwu James, earlier the same day at a warehouse in Ajao Estate, Ikeja, where he was sent by Mbadiwe to collect a shipment of 33 parcels of Loud, a strong strain of cannabis weighing 17.30 kilograms, which arrived at the import shed of Lagos International Airport on 24 December 2024 from the United States on a Delta Airline flight.
In Kwara State, a fresh graduate, Khadijat Abdulraheem, and a 20-year-old student of the University of Ilorin, Ayomide Morakinyo, were on 29 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.
An ex-convict, Sodade Sunday Eniola, who was arrested by operatives of the Tincan Command of the NDLEA in June 2024 for drug trafficking, prosecuted, and sentenced to four years in prison, has been arrested again by officers of the Lagos International Airport Strategic Command of the Agency for passport racketeering.
When he was convicted by a Federal High Court in Lagos on 14 June 2024, the trial judge gave him the option of paying a ¦ 750,000 fine, which he paid and was let go.
In a series of operations in December 2024, NDLEA operatives at the export shed of the Lagos airport intercepted no fewer than 52 passports of 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 Sunday Eniola, Ayinde Saheed Awwal, Salaudeen Afeez Ayode, and Sheriff Adebayo Bamigbade. Both the exhibits and the suspects were on 30 December 2024 handed over to the Zonal Command of the Nigerian Immigration Service in Lagos for further investigation and possible prosecution.
Babafemi said in the statement that 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 on 31 December 2024.
