A surrendered and rehabilitated ex-fighter of the Boko Haram terrorist group, Alayi Madu, and the traditional ruler of Kajola, a border community between Ondo and Edo states, Baale Akinola Adebayo, were among the 37 persons arrested over 2.2 tons of illicit drugs seized by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja, Lagos, and other areas in raids within the past week.
The Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA,  Femi Babafemi, who revealed this recently, said, “as 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 10th March, stormed Kajola forest in Kajola Community, a border town between Edo and Ondo States 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 2:30am, 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.
“In the same vein, a 26-year-old Alayi Madu, who was a Boko Haram terrorist for 15 years before he surrendered to the Nigerian military in 2021 was intercepted by NDLEA operatives on Thursday 9th March 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.
“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-radicalisation centre, Gombe, before he was discharged after spending six months.
“Thereafter, he traveled to Ibadan, Oyo State, where he worked as commercial motorcycle rider (Okada rider) before going into drug trafficking and his eventual arrest along Abuja-Kaduna express road”.
At the Lagos airport in Ikeja, operatives acting on intelligence intercepted a consignment of 11.90 kilograms of heroin and 500grams of skunk concealed in deep freezers, which were part of a cargo that arrived from South Africa on Tuesday 7th March onboard Ethiopian airline via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The Agency’s sniffer dogs were deployed to locate where the illicit drugs were hidden in the cargo and in no time, they identified the cartons packed in the deep freezers.