Juliana Francis
A 56-year-old suspected drug trafficker, Lawal Lateef Oyenuga, has narrated to Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, that he took to trafficking in order to pay his daughter’s examination fees.
Oyenuga was said to be on a mission to deliver 400 gramms of the class A drug concealed in a pair of palm sandals in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia when he was arrested.
Also arrested in a follow-up operation is a wanted notorious kingpin, Wasiu Sanni Gbolahan, popularly known as Teacher, who recruits mules for cartel.
During interrogation, he said: “ I was recruited to traffic the drug by Gbolahan popularly known as Teacher. I was first given some pellets of cocaine to swallow but when I could not do that, I was given the ones concealed in the palm sandals. I resorted to the illegal trade to raise money to pay an examination fee for my daughter in Senior Secondary School Class (SS3).”
NDLEA operatives attached to the screening point of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos had on Thursday 24th November intercepted Oyenuga with a pair of black palm sandals packed in the luggage, he was going with him to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airways flight.
The Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, said: “A thorough examination of the sandals revealed they were used to conceal two parcels of cocaine weighing 400 gramms. This is barely a week after a 56-year-old widow and mother of four, Mrs. Ajisegiri Kehinde Sidika was arrested at the airport over her attempt to traffic 400 gramms of cocaine concealed in her footwear to Makkah, Saudi Arabia on board a Qatar Airways flight.”
The Agency’s database reveals Gbolahan (Teacher) has been linked to previous attempts to traffic cocaine to Saudi Arabia and Dubai, UAE.
He was earlier named as the one who recruited a BRT driver, Bolajoko Muyiwa Babalola for Lagos socialite and owner of Adekaz Hotels, Alhaji Ademola Afolabi Kazeem a.k.a Alhaji Abdallah Kazeem Muhammed, to traffic drugs to Dubai.
Bolajoko was arrested on 27th June while taking 900 gramms of cocaine to Dubai while Ademola Kazeem was nabbed on Thursday 10th November, barely 10 days after he was declared wanted by NDLEA.
“A follow-up operation in the early hours of Friday 25th November led to the arrest of the kingpin, Teacher, who specialises in recruiting mules for drug barons in Lagos and its environs at his residence located in Ikorodu area of Lagos. The 64-year-old Gbolahan is a housing and property agent, with seven children and four wives, one of whom is now late,” said Babafemi.
