By Abiola Olawale
A former beauty queen, Aderinoye Queen Christmas, also known as Queen Oluwadamilola Aderinoye, has surrendered herself to the Lagos Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
This was disclosed in a statement issued by the Director of Media and Advocacy at NDLEA Headquarters, Femi Babafemi.
Babafemi confirmed that Aderinoye surrendered herself after evading arrest for eight months over drug-related offences.
According to Babafemi, Aderinoye had been declared wanted by the agency in January after she evaded arrest during a raid on her apartment in Oral Estate, Lekki, Lagos, on January 24th.
The raid was conducted based on credible intelligence indicating her involvement in illicit drug activities.
Aderinoye, who previously held the title of Miss Commonwealth Nigeria Culture 2015/2016, is also the founder of the Queen Christmas Foundation.
The statement reads in part: “Recovered from her home during the search witnessed by the estate officials include 606 grams of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, an electronic weighing scale, large quantities of drugs packing plastics, a black RAV 4 SUV marked Lagos KSF 872 GQ, and her picture frame among others.
“The suspect who claimed she has been hiding in Akure Ondo state since January when she escaped arrest in Lekki Lagos, however, surrendered to the Agency on Wednesday 28th August.”
In other developments, Babafemi also confirmed that the operatives of the NDLEA intercepted a total of 31 124 600 pills of tramadol 225mg and bottles of codeine-based syrup worth over N17,932,200,000.00 in street value at the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, Rivers state and Tincan seaport in Lagos.
He explained that the seizures were made following intelligence processed by the Agency on the movement of the shipments from their port of origin in India.
He continued: “A breakdown of the seizures shows that 350,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup were recovered from two containers at Tincan port in Lagos on Thursday, 29th, and Friday, 30th August 2024. Each of the two containers had 175,000 bottles of the opioid.
“At the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, NDLEA operatives equally intercepted a total of 447 cartons of tramadol 225mg containing Twenty-Nine Million Eight Hundred and Forty Thousand (29, 840,000) pills of the opioid as well as 380,000 bottles of codeine syrup from three containers on Thursday 29th August.
“The tramadol shipments came under different brand names such as Royal Tapetadol, Carisoprodol 225mg, and Royal Tramadol Hydrochloride 225mg.
“The following day, Friday 30th August, another set of three containers watch-listed by NDLEA were subjected to joint examination. At the end of the exercise, a total of 3,030 cartons of codeine syrup containing 554,600 bottles of opioids were recovered from them.
“This brings the total bottles of codeine seized at Onne, Rivers, and Tincan in Lagos to 1,284,600 bottles worth N8,992,200,000.00 in street value while the combined seizure of tramadol stood at 29, 840,000 pills valued at N8,940,000,000.00.
“In the same vein, NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers state, on Tuesday 27th August, arrested a suspect, Eze Emekan Don, while attempting to board a Cronos airline flight to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, with 1,490 pills of tramadol concealed and packaged as cosmetics of different brands inside his luggage. His attempt to compromise the officers to evade arrest was rebuffed,” the statement reads.
Babafemi also said no less than 1,122 kilograms of cannabis were seized from a suspect, Mustapha Ibrahim, when he was arrested on Monday, 26th August,t, along Orchid Road, Ajah, Lagos, while 816kg of the same psychoactive substance belonging to a suspect at large was recovered from the same location the same day.
“In Niger state, NDLEA operatives on Monday 26th August arrested a suspect, Friday Gabriel, along Minna-Suleja road while conveying 1,900 capsules of tramadol, 300 bottles of codeine syrup, and 600 packets of exol-5 tablets. Similarly, operatives in Bauchi state on Saturday, 31st August, arrested two suspects: Garba Muhammed, 35, and Usman Yakubu Shehu, 31, along Bauchi-Gombe road while transporting 308 blocks of cannabis weighing 246.4kg, concealed in a false compartment of a J5 bus marked Edo state URM 38 ZY,” he added.
