The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has declared Kazeem Omogoriola Owoalade and Rashidat Ayinke, his wife, wanted for allegedly running a drug cartel.

Femi Babafemi, NDLEA spokesperson, said in a statement on Sunday that the couple “runs a cocaine cartel from India”.

Babafemi said the couple’s involvement in the drug ring was discovered after the “arrest of four members of the syndicate in Lagos”.

The NDLEA spokesperson said Imran Taofeek Olalekan and Ishola Isiaka Olalekan, two members of the syndicate, were arrested trying to export 3.40 kilogrammes of cocaine to Oman through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on April 3.

He said five weeks of surveillance resulted in the arrest of one Hamed Abimbola Saheed, a member of the group, on May 14 at a residence in the Abule Egba area of Lagos.

Babafemi added that Saheed “works directly with the baron” and was the person “who lodged Imran in a hotel a day before his aborted trip to Oman and equally dropped him and Ishola at the Lagos airport the day they were arrested”.

“During a search of Hamed house, NDLEA operatives recovered some phenacetine, a cutting agent for cocaine, weighing 900 grams. He confessed that the recovered substance was what was left of the consignment Imran was taking to Oman the day he was arrested,” the statement reads.

“His arrest led to a follow-up operation at the home of the Owoalade couple at 20 Eyiaro street, Ogudu Orioke, Lagos, where another suspect was arrested and a new model Toyota RAV4 SUV marked FKJ-773 JJ belonging to Rashidat and additional 400 grams of cocaine recovered in addition to already prepared suitcases to be used for illicit drug concealment, digital weighing scales, and other paraphernalia.”

Also, the NDLEA spokesperson said operatives of the agency intercepted two parcels containing cocaine and amphetamine concealed in steel bolts and shea butter on May 17 in Lagos.

He said the seized cocaine was being exported to China, adding that the amphetamine was destined for the United Kingdom (UK).

Babafemi noted that one Emeka Nwadiaro, known as Mega, was also arrested over an alleged attempt to export 3.6 kilogrammes of the strain of cannabis called Loud to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

He said the substance was concealed in 36 water flasks and was discovered at a logistics company in Port Harcourt, Rivers, on May 16.

He added that the agency also intercepted a Mercedes Benz bus loaded with 840 kilogrammes of cannabis at Olojo in Ojo LGA, Lagos.

“Another suspect, Lawal Adam, was nabbed along Otukpo road, Aliade, Benue state on Friday, May 17, with 75,000 pills of opioids, including tramadol and excel-5,” he said.

“Two suspects, Olisa Etisi, 32, and Jonathan Umeh, 25, were arrested along Owerri – Onitsha road, Imo state, following the discovery by NDLEA operatives of a big gas cylinder used to conceal six blocks of Loud, a strain of cannabis weighing 3.85kg.”

A federal high court in Lagos has sentenced Adepoju Anuoluwapo, a Lagos-based medical doctor, to one-year imprisonment.

In 2020, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) arraigned Anuoluwapo for obstructing the agency’s investigation.

The commission commenced an investigation into the activities of the cosmetic surgeon after the death of Nneka Onwuzuligbo, one of her clients, over failed plastic surgery.

Anuoluwapo, along with her medical facility, were arraigned on a five-count charge before Mohammed Liman, the trial judge.

The FCCPC had accused the cosmetic surgeon of failing to honour its summons repeatedly and refusing to produce certain documents for investigation.

Some of her clients had taken to social media to lament how Anuoluwapo’s cosmetic medical procedures inflicted serious bodily injuries on them.

Subsequently, the federal government shut down her facility — MedContour Services Ltd., located in Lagos, while the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) suspended her license.

THE CONVICTION

In a post published on X, Babatunde Irukera, the immediate former chief executive officer (CEO) of FCCPC, said the cosmetic surgeon was convicted on all five counts of charges filed against her.

“Dr. Anu Adepoju & her medical practice convicted in all 5 counts charged by FCCPC,” Irukera wrote.

“The wheel of justice may grind slow, but we must see it through. What we need are enforced with audacity & will to prosecute competently & diligently. Good day for consumers of professional services.”

THE SENTENCE

The presiding sentenced Anuoluwapo to one year imprisonment on each of the four counts, which will run concurrently.

The judge suspended the imprisonment on the condition that the medical doctor pay a N100,000 fine for each count.

Six Cameroonian professors in Nigerian universities, alongside four others imprisoned in Cameroon, have appealed to the house of representatives for help.

The academics said they were arrested in Nigeria on the orders of the Cameroonian authorities over “frivolous allegations of plotting to destabilise the government” of President Paul Biya.

The professors were meeting to discuss the welfare of Cameroonian refugees who had fled to Nigeria, when they were arrested on January 5, 2018.

The academics, who claimed to be refugees and registered asylum seekers in Nigeria, alleged that they were illegally arrested and repatriated to Cameroon.

They were reportedly tried at a military tribunal and sentenced to life imprisonment at the Kondengui maximum security detention facility in Cameroon.

In March 2019, a federal high court in Abuja ruled that the arrest and subsequent detention of the academics was illegal, unconstitutional and violated the deportees’ rights as guaranteed by the Nigerian constitution.

The UN Human Rights Special Procedures Working Group had asked the Cameroonian government to release the academics over rights violations.

‘OUR CLIENTS WERE ABDUCTED’

In March, the academics petitioned the house of representatives, seeking its intervention.

Addressing journalists on Tuesday in Abuja, Joseph Fru, counsel to the academics, said his clients were illegally imprisoned by the Cameroonian authorities.

“There is a clarification that we need to make that is fundamental and cardinal. They (our clients) were abducted. They were not arrested,” he said.

“When you say someone is arrested — there is a legal course for them to be picked up by the forces of law and order.

“And in a normal arrest situation, you have probable cause that you are being suspected of committing a crime and before you get to that point, there has to be a procedure you follow to get either an arrest warrant or search warrant that may lead to their apprehension.

“But when someone arbitrarily, without any legal course, is picked up and then held for as long as they were held in Nigeria before being sent to Cameroon, that is called an abduction.

“An abduction does not end when we know where they are. That illegal act continues and abides with them until that illegality is cured. And to this point, that illegality has not been cured, and that is why we are still in prison.

“The second thing is that they were not repatriated. You repatriate someone when you go through a legal channel and you exhaust all the legal processes and the court decides that they go back to where they came from to answer in that jurisdiction.

“Before you repatriate someone, there has to be a bilateral treaty that is observed. None of that in this case.”

Fru, who was flanked by family members of the academics, said relevant government agencies of the Nigerian government were missing at a hearing organised by the house of representatives committee on public petition on Tuesday.

He said the government agencies include the office of the attorney-general of the federation, secretary to the government of the federation, ministry of foreign affairs, National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Department of State Services (DSS), and United Nations (UN) high commission country representative.

Fru expressed hopes that the house would intervene and secure the release of the professors.

“We adjourned for 11 June, 2024 because the committee is not happy with the fact that the last time, they were elements of the government of the executive arm that were required to be at the hearing but none of them showed up,” he added.

“So motions were moved and it was adopted that these entities should necessarily appear in the next hearing so that resolution to this can be taken.

“In the event they do not show up, the committee is ready to move forward. How they move forward depends on their deliberation and that is above my pay grade.

“The chairman said they were going to give these entities a last chance to appear so they can have enough information to go by and come up with a resolution.”