The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has announced Ms. Queen Oluwadamilola Aderinoye, a former beauty queen, as wanted for her involvement in illegal drug activities.
According to a statement issued by Femi Babafemi, the Director of Media and Advocacy at the NDLEA National Headquarters in Abuja, the suspect, who previously held the title of Miss Commonwealth Nigeria Culture 2015/2016 and is the founder of the Queen Christmas Foundation, has been declared wanted.
This declaration followed her departure from her residence in Lekki in an attempt to evade law enforcement officers who had received intelligence linking her to illegal drug transactions.
Babafemi reported that items recovered from her residence during a search conducted in the presence of estate officials included 606 grams of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, an electronic weighing scale, large quantities of plastic packaging for drugs, a black RAV 4 SUV with license plate number Lagos KSF 872 GQ, as well as her picture frame, among other items.
He said the suspect also known as Ms. Aderinoye Queen Christmas “has been declared wanted by the Agency after she escaped from her Lekki, Lagos residence when NDLEA operatives raided her apartment at Oral estate, Lekki on Wednesday 24th January following credible intelligence she deals in illicit substances.
Babafemi: “The suspect was Miss Commonwealth Nigeria Culture 2015/2016 and founder of Queen Christmas Foundation. Recovered from her home during the search witnessed by the estate officials include 606 grams of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, an electronic weighing scale, large quantities of drugs packing plastics, a black RAV 4 SUV marked Lagos KSF 872 GQ, and her picture frame
He also said two members of an international drug trafficking syndicate: “Sunday Michael Owoborode, 52, and Valentine Anene were arrested the next day Thursday 25th January at Edu Orita, Ogun state where Valentine was being prepared to travel with some drugs to Qatar the same day on board a Qatar airline flight from Lagos.
He said: “At the time of their arrest, 1.8kg cannabis, electronic weighing scale and other illicit substances were found on them. In another interdiction operation by operatives in Lagos, a 50-year-old Sunday Adediran, was arrested on Wednesday 24th January with 20kg cannabis sativa found in one of the rooms in his house at Mushin Olosha.”
He also stated that the Agency had detained a Brazil returnee, Udechukwu Ekene Theophilus, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA Ikeja Lagos, for consuming 60 large wraps of cocaine.
He stated that the suspect, who was apprehended during the inward clearance of passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil via Addis Abeba, Ethiopia at the Lagos airport’s D-Arrival Hall on Sunday, January 21, 2024, initially refused to undergo a body scan, raising health concerns in a desperate attempt to avoid arrest.
Babafemi said: “When he was however offered other options, he accepted to be placed on excretion observation and shortly after he was ushered into NDLEA observatory, he excreted the first set of cocaine pellets, after which he expelled a total of 60 wraps of the class A drug weighing 1.279 kilograms in five excretions.
“In his statement, Udechukwu claimed he ingested the consignment in Brazil and was to discharge everything at the airport in Addis Ababa but could only excrete 15 pellets which he handed over to another member of his syndicate before his connecting flight to Nigeria was called,” the statement reads.
In the same vein, NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport on Tuesday, January 23rd, recovered a total of 12 cartons of tramadol 225mg containing 599,900 pills weighing 385.40kg from an overstayed cargo at the Lagos airport’s SAHCO import shed following a joint examination with other agencies. He stated that they have since been under the watchful eye of NDLEA agents.
The statement reads: “The tramadol consignment had come into the country in two batches on KLM Royal Dutch Airline flights from Karachi, Pakistan between 27th July and 1st August 2023.
“Not less than 822 kilograms of cannabis sativa hidden in a fuel station located at Ashipa community along Badagry-Seme road were recovered by operatives of the Seme Special Area Command of NDLEA, while a suspect Sani Audu, 35, was arrested with 111.3kg of same substance at Maigatari town in Jigawa State on Tuesday 23rd January.
“In Yobe state, two suspects: Mohammed Usman and Adamu Ma’azu were arrested on Saturday 27th January with 49 blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 50kg at Damaturu motor park, Damaturu, while the duo of Paul Obor, 38, and Dennis Fuokorighe, 48, who were arrested on Wednesday 24th Jan. at a Navy checkpoint, Itobe, Ofu LGA, Kogi state with 318 compressed blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 190.8kg concealed in a gold colour Honda Accord Car marked RBC 449AE, were handed over to the Kogi state command of the Agency on Friday 26th Jan. by men of the Nigeria Navy Ship, Lugard, Lokoja.
