A pastor and his wife are in the custody of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency after operatives discovered 11 kilograms of skunk concealed in hidden compartments of their vehicle at a Lagos checkpoint — one of several drug busts recorded by the agency in a nationwide sweep over the past week.
The suspects, Pastor Afolabi Hodonu, 45, said to be in charge of the Celestial Church of Christ at the Agonvi Sea Beach in the Sakpo area of Seme border, Badagry, and his wife, Success Hodonu, 35, were arrested on Thursday, April 2, at the Gbaji checkpoint after a search of their Honda Pilot SUV yielded the concealed narcotics.
NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi, who disclosed the arrest in a statement on Sunday, said the couple’s interception was not a routine discovery.
Investigations into an earlier arrest at the same checkpoint on March 30 — when operatives nabbed a fake security agent, Sunday Samuel, 35, transporting 24.5kg of skunk from Seme border to Lagos — led directly to the pastor and his wife, suggesting a coordinated supply chain.
In a separate but equally revealing operation, NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja intercepted 3.10 kilograms of cocaine cleverly concealed inside tins of palm kernel extract that were bound for the United Kingdom.
Two suspects — Idris Olayiwola Amoo and Akinlami Akinsoji Adedoyin — were arrested in connection with the airport seizure. Follow-up intelligence operations led to the arrest of the alleged sender, Ezemuwo Joel, and a suspected syndicate leader, King Arinze, 52, at a warehouse in Isolo, Lagos.
Agents recovered 886 tins prepared specifically for drug concealment, along with packaging equipment, from the warehouse — pointing to a well-organised trafficking operation.
In the North-East, NDLEA operatives arrested a 28-year-old woman, Aisha Adamu, along the Gamboru Ngala road in Borno State. She was allegedly supplying drugs to bandit groups operating across the North-East and Chad, and was found with 4.3 kilograms of Colorado — a synthetic strain of cannabis.
The week’s operations extended across multiple states. In Adamawa, operatives seized 48,000 tramadol pills.
In Edo State, a warehouse raid yielded 1,378 kilograms of skunk. In Ibadan, a suspected drug dealer was arrested on allegations that she used her 11-year-old daughter as a distribution courier — a development the agency described with particular concern.
NDLEA Chairman, retired Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa, commended operatives for the week’s results and reaffirmed the agency’s determination to dismantle trafficking networks at every level.
“Traffickers will not escape justice irrespective of the methods used to conceal illicit drugs,” Marwa said, stressing that no individual — regardless of social status or profession — would be spared from prosecution.
