Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) started the New Year 2025 with the arrest of a wanted drug kingpin and Lagos socialite, 61-year-old Alhaja Aishat Feyisara Ajoke Elediye.
Spokesman of the agency, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday in a statement in Abuja said the suspect who is also a Nollywood filmmaker, was arrested on Wednesday, January 1, 2025, in her mansion at the Okota area of Lagos following the interception of a truckload of illicit drug consignment from her staff the same day.
“Known in the drug underworld as ‘Iya Ruka’, Alhaja Ajoke as she is fondly called in her social circle, has her true identity shrouded in mystery for years while she remained on the wanted list of the NDLEA for leading one of the drug cartels operating from the Mushin area of Lagos.
“The lid was however blown off her invincibility on Wednesday, 1st January 2025 when NDLEA operatives acting on intelligence intercepted a white Isuzu truck carrying 44 jumbo sacks containing 1,540kg of imported cannabis and driven by one of her staff, 41-year-old Abideen Adio,” Babafemi said.
He said 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, it was learnt.
She is also recognized as the Iyalaje of Blessing Sisters, an influential club of society women in Lagos.
In another major operation, NDLEA officers on Friday 27th December 2024 arrested a US-trained Hollywood and Nollywood filmmaker, Emeka Emmanuel Mbadiwe, who is also a motivational speaker at his Lekki Hotel room.
His arrest followed 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 17.30kgs, which arrived at the import shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja on December 24, 2024 from the US on a Delta Airline flight, concealed in large wooden boxes.
In Kwara State, a graduate, Khadijat Abdulraheem, 24, and a 20-year-old student of the University of Ilorin, Ayomide Morakinyo, were also arrested on Sunday, December 29, 2024, by NDLEA operatives at Tanke-University of Ilorin road, Oke Odo, Ilorin.
The arrest was 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.
Also, 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 rearrested by officers of the MMIA Strategic Command of the agency for passport racketeering.
When he was convicted by a Federal High Court in Lagos on June 14, 2024, the trial judge gave him an option of paying N750,000 fine, which he paid.
However, in 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.