The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has announced that former beauty queen Oluwadamilola Aderinoye has turned herself in to its Lagos Command. Aderinoye, who was crowned Miss Commonwealth Nigeria Culture in 2015/2016, had been on the run for eight months after being declared wanted by the agency.
In a statement released on Sunday, NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi said that Aderinoye was declared wanted following a raid on her apartment in Lekki, Lagos, on January 24, 2024. During the operation, officers seized 606 grams of “Canadian Loud,” a synthetic strain of cannabis, an electronic weighing scale, a significant amount of drug packaging materials, a black RAV 4 SUV with the license plate Lagos KSF 872 GQ, and a picture frame.
“Ms. Aderinoye Queen Christmas, also known as Ms. Queen Oluwadamilola Aderinoye, surrendered to the Lagos Command of the agency after about eight months in hiding,” Babafemi said. He added that Aderinoye claimed she had been hiding in Akure, Ondo State, since escaping arrest in January.
In addition to this development, Babafemi disclosed that NDLEA operatives recently intercepted a large shipment of drugs, including 31,124,600 tramadol pills (225mg) and bottles of codeine-based syrup, worth over N17.9 billion in street value, at the Port Harcourt Port Complex in Onne, Rivers State, and the Tincan Seaport in Lagos. The seizures followed intelligence reports about the movement of shipments from India, prompting a joint examination of the containers with the Nigerian Customs Service and other security agencies.
The breakdown of the seizures includes 350,000 bottles of codeine syrup recovered from two containers at Tincan Port in Lagos on August 29 and 30, 2024, and 447 cartons of tramadol (225mg), containing 29,840,000 pills, alongside 380,000 bottles of codeine syrup from three containers at the Port Harcourt Port Complex on August 29. The tramadol shipments were labeled under different brand names, such as Royal Tapentadol, Carisoprodol 225mg, and Royal Tramadol Hydrochloride 225mg.
Further examinations of three other containers watch-listed by the NDLEA led to the recovery of 3,030 cartons of codeine syrup, containing 554,600 bottles. This brings the total number of codeine bottles seized at Onne and Tincan ports to 1,284,600, with a street value of N8.99 billion, while the total tramadol seizure amounts to 29,840,000 pills valued at N8.94 billion.
Babafemi also noted that NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt International Airport arrested a suspect, Eze Emekan Don, on August 27 while attempting to board a flight to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. He was caught with 1,490 tramadol pills disguised as cosmetics in his luggage.
In Lagos, the NDLEA seized 1,122 kilograms of cannabis from a suspect, Mustapha Ibrahim, on August 26 along Orchid Road, Ajah. An additional 816 kilograms of the same substance, belonging to another suspect who remains at large, were recovered at the same location that day.
In other operations, NDLEA agents in Niger State arrested a suspect, Friday Gabriel, on August 26 along the Minna-Suleja road with 1,900 tramadol capsules, 300 bottles of codeine syrup, and 600 packets of exol-5 tablets. In Bauchi State, on August 31, operatives arrested two suspects, Garba Muhammed and Usman Yakubu Shehu, along the Bauchi-Gombe road while transporting 308 blocks of cannabis, weighing 246.4 kilograms, hidden in a false compartment of a J5 bus.
These recent arrests and seizures highlight the NDLEA’s ongoing efforts to combat drug trafficking and distribution across Nigeria.
