10 years after escape, NDLEA arrests drug baron in Lagos
The Joint Task Force (JTF) Operation Unit of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a drug baron, Chidi Olife, who escaped arrest for unlawful importation of 5.250kg of heroin concealed in books from Karachi, Pakistan to Lagos in June 2010.
Olife’s arrest in Lagos came just as operatives of the anti-drug agency in Adamawa State nabbed an illicit drug dealer, Rabiu Imam, on Friday, February 19 with Tramadol tablet 225mg weighing 45.4kg.
The NDLEA spokesman, Jonah Achema, said on Saturday in Abuja that the Adamawa State Commander of NDLEA, Idris Bello, while briefing the Chairman/Chief Executive of the agency, Brig-Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa (Rtd) on Saturday, said other illicit drugs recovered from Imam include; Tramadol capsules 100mg weighing 550grms; Diazepam tablet 850grms.
He said the drug trafficker was arrested in a house at Unguwan Madina, Mubi North Local Government area of Adamawa State.
ALagos-based lawyer, Akeem Fadun, has said the N10 million awarded by the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Friday for victims of police brutality was far less than what they demanded.
The petitioners, Adebayo Abayomi and Hannah Olugbodi, were compensated with N10m each for the loss and disability they suffered as a result of misuse of firearms by officers of the Nigeria Police Force.
Fadun, counsel to Hannah Olugbodi, 35, said yesterday that they demanded a substantial compensation but have no choice but to accept the N10m. The panel also awarded scholarship to the victims’ children.
Mrs Olugbodi narrated how her left leg was shattered by a stray bullet from officers of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) on June 6, 2018 while operatives were chasing a suspected internet fraudster at Ijesha, Lagos.
On the other hand, Abayomi had approached the panel over the death of his mother, Kudirat Abayomi, who was the breadwinner of the family.
He told the panel that his mother’s corpse was left on the ground at the mortuary after she was hit by a stray bullet from police officers. The incident happened on April 4, 2017, at the Onipanu area.