The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency is said to have arrested an ex-Boko Haram fighter, Alayi Madu, and the traditional ruler of Kajola, a border community between Ondo and Edo states, Baale Akinola Adebayo, for drug trafficking on Sunday.
The arrest is part of ongoing operations to mop up illicit drugs across the country ahead of the next round of elections. NDLEA officers in the early hours of Friday, March 10, stormed Kajola forest in Kajola community, where they destroyed three cannabis farms measuring 39.801546 hectares.
The owner of the farms who claims to be the Ba’ale of Kajola, Akinola Adebayo, 35, was arrested on the farm at 2:30 am, while two other suspects believed to be his workers Arikuyeri Abdulrahman, 23, and Habibu Ologun, 25, were also nabbed in a hut near the farms.
The Director, of Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, also revealed all these in a statement on Sunday.
Furthermore, a 26-year-old Alayi Madu, who was a Boko Haram fighter for 15 years before he surrendered to the Nigerian military in 2021, was intercepted by NDLEA operatives on Thursday, March 9 along Abuja-Kaduna express road with 10 kilograms of skunk, which he said he bought in Ibadan, Oyo State and was taking the consignment concealed in a sack to Maiduguri, Borno State.
Babafemi said,
“In his statement, Madu said he is from Banki town, Borno State and joined the notorious terrorist organisation in 2006 when he was nine years old. He said he repented and surrendered to the military in 2021, after which he underwent rehabilitation and de-radicalisation processes at Umaru Shehu rehabilitation centre, Maiduguri and Malam Sidi de-radicalization centre, Gombe before he was discharged after spending six months.
“Thereafter, he travelled to Ibadan, Oyo State where he worked as commercial motorcycle rider (Okada rider) before going into drug trafficking, and was eventually arrested along Abuja-Kaduna express road.”
