A 93-year-old man and a 69-year-old medical doctor are among an array of suspects arrested by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency in a sweeping nationwide crackdown on drug cartels and their collaborators, in operations that also led to the seizure of thousands of kilograms of illicit substances across multiple states.
The arrests were disclosed on Sunday in a statement by the agency's Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, who said the operations were intelligence-led and coordinated across Lagos, Ogun, Abia, Edo, Niger, Imo, Borno and the Federal Capital Territory, targeting both local trafficking networks and international syndicates with Nigerian connections.
The nonagenarian, Pa Friday Ahukanna Chigbu, was arrested on April 7, 2026, at his residence in Umuagbaigba, Amavo Nkwogu village, Osisioma Local Government Area of Abia State, where a search of his home led to the recovery of 7.7 kilograms of skunk, a potent strain of cannabis. In a remarkable admission that stunned investigators, the suspect told NDLEA operatives that he had been smoking skunk since 1959, having graduated from personal consumption to commercial drug trafficking only about a year ago. He said he had previously worked as a truck pusher and later as a painter and tiler before venturing into the illicit drug trade at an age when most of his contemporaries are long retired from active life.
The arrest of the 69-year-old medical doctor, Dr. Chudi Daniel Ofomata, came through an entirely different but equally revealing chain of events rooted in international drug trafficking. NDLEA operatives had on February 16, 2026, intercepted an Ivorian national, Gohouri Michael, also known as Anunwa Onyinye Michael, at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano during the outward clearance of passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines flight bound for Milan in Italy, via Addis Ababa. Gohouri was found to have ingested 82 wraps of cocaine weighing 1.49 kilograms, which he had swallowed in his hotel room in Kano after a circuitous journey that had taken him from Milan to Lagos in January 2026, then through Enugu and eventually to Kano. He was to have been paid 5,000 Euros upon successful delivery of the drugs to Milan.
Investigations into Gohouri's operation quickly revealed the existence of a shadowy handler based in Nigeria who had been giving the courier instructions on how to navigate the cocaine consignment through the airport. That figure was eventually unmasked as Dr. Ofomata, who was tracked to his residence at Teachers' Land Estate, Magboro, Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State, where he was arrested on March 27, 2026, and subsequently flown to Kano on April 7 for further investigation. Recovered from him at the point of arrest were 63 grams of promazepam and seven ampoules of promethazine injection, controlled pharmaceutical substances whose presence at his residence deepened investigators' suspicions about the scope of his involvement in the drug trade.
Beyond these headline arrests, NDLEA's operations produced a remarkable haul of seizures across the country. In Ogun State, three suspects were arrested with 34 kilograms of skunk at the Sango Under Bridge in Sango Ota, while in Imo State, a 26-year-old woman, Ayoka Akinwale, was apprehended along the Onitsha-Owerri road with 56.2 kilograms of the same substance. In Niger State, a couple, Abdullahi Umar and his wife Adama Umar, were arrested after 118 kilograms of skunk were found in the kitchen of their home in Takuti village, Lapai Local Government Area. In Borno State, a trailer carrying pharmaceutical opioids including Rohypnol, codeine syrup and pentazocine injections, concealed among spare parts, was intercepted and a suspect arrested.
In Lagos, NDLEA officers intercepted a commercial bus heading to Port Harcourt along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and seized 15 kilograms of a potent cannabis strain known as Scottish Loud, while a separate operation in the Mushin area led to the seizure of 26,800 bottles of codeine-based syrup from a truck and the arrest of two suspects. A raid on the notorious Tora Bora drug joint in Abuja netted eight suspects and yielded over 11 kilograms of skunk. In Edo State, two trucks with skunk totalling 7,245 kilograms concealed among cartons of beer were intercepted along the Warrake road in Auchi, and five suspects were arrested.
NDLEA Chairman Mohamed Buba Marwa commended operatives across all commands for their sustained momentum in dismantling drug supply networks and urged personnel to maintain the balance between enforcement operations and demand reduction efforts through the agency's War Against Drug Abuse advocacy campaign.
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