The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has announced that former beauty queen Oluwadamilola Aderinoye has surrendered to its Lagos command. The agency had accused Aderinoye, who held the title of Miss Commonwealth Nigeria Culture in 2015/2016, of going into hiding after being declared wanted eight months ago.
According to a statement on Sunday by the agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, Aderinoye was declared wanted after escaping during a raid on her apartment in Lekki on January 24, 2024. During the raid, NDLEA operatives recovered 606 grams of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, an electronic weighing scale, a large quantity of drug-packaging plastics, a black RAV 4 SUV with the license plate Lagos KSF 872 GQ, and a picture frame of Aderinoye, among other items.
Babafemi said, “Ms. Aderinoye Queen Christmas, also known as Ms. Queen Oluwadamilola Aderinoye, a wanted ex-beauty queen, has surrendered to the Lagos Command of the agency after approximately eight months in hiding. She was declared wanted in January after fleeing her residence in Lekki, Lagos, during a raid by NDLEA operatives on January 24, following credible intelligence linking her to the trafficking of illicit substances.
The suspect, who held the title of Miss Commonwealth Nigeria Culture 2015/2016 and is the founder of the Queen Christmas Foundation, had several items recovered from her home during the search, which was witnessed by estate officials. These included 606 grams of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, an electronic weighing scale, a large quantity of drug-packaging plastics, a black RAV 4 SUV with the license plate Lagos KSF 872 GQ, and a picture frame of her, among others.”
The suspect claimed she had been hiding in Akure, Ondo State, since January when she escaped arrest in Lekki, Lagos, but eventually surrendered to the agency on Wednesday, August 28.
Babafemi also reported that operatives of the agency intercepted a total of 31,124,600 tramadol pills (225 mg) and bottles of codeine-based syrup, with a street value of over N17,932,200,000, at the Port Harcourt Port Complex in Onne, Rivers State, and the Tincan seaport in Lagos.
“The seizures were made following intelligence gathered by the agency on the movement of the shipments from their port of origin in India, which led to a request for a 100 percent joint examination of the watch-listed containers with the Nigerian Customs Service and other security agencies,” he added.
According to Babafemi, the breakdown of the seizures showed that 350,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup were recovered from two containers at the Tincan port in Lagos on August 29 and 30, 2024. “Each of the two containers contained 175,000 bottles of the opioid.”
At the Port Harcourt Port Complex in Onne, NDLEA operatives also intercepted a total of 447 cartons of tramadol (225 mg), containing 29,840,000 pills of the opioid, as well as 380,000 bottles of codeine syrup from three containers on Thursday, August 29. The tramadol shipments were branded under different names, such as Royal Tapentadol, Carisoprodol 225 mg, and Royal Tramadol Hydrochloride 225 mg, the statement added.
The following day, Babafemi said, another set of three containers flagged by the NDLEA were subjected to joint examination. At the end of the inspection, a total of 3,030 cartons of codeine syrup containing 554,600 bottles of the opioid were recovered.
“This brings the total number of codeine bottles seized at Onne, Rivers, and Tincan in Lagos to 1,284,600, with an estimated street value of N8,992,200,000, while the combined tramadol seizures amount to 29,840,000 pills, valued at N8,940,000,000,” he stated.
He also mentioned that on August 27, NDLEA operatives at Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers State, arrested a suspect named Eze Emekan Don. The suspect was attempting to board a Cronos airline flight to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, with 1,490 tramadol pills hidden and disguised as various cosmetic products inside his luggage.
In Lagos, Babafemi reported the seizure of 1,122 kilograms of cannabis from a suspect, Mustapha Ibrahim, who was apprehended on August 26 along Orchid Road, Ajah. He further noted, “An additional 816 kg of cannabis, owned by another suspect who remains at large, was also recovered from the same location on the same day.”
In Niger State, NDLEA operatives detained a suspect, Friday Gabriel, on August 26 along the Minna-Suleja road. Gabriel was found transporting 1,900 capsules of tramadol, 300 bottles of codeine syrup, and 600 packets of exol-5 tablets.
On Saturday, August 31, in Bauchi State, operatives arrested two suspects, Garba Muhammed, 35, and Usman Yakubu Shehu, 31, on the Bauchi-Gombe road. The suspects were caught transporting 308 blocks of cannabis, weighing 246.4 kg, hidden in a concealed compartment of a J5 bus with the license plate URM 38 ZY, registered in Edo State.
