Abuja, Sept 1, 2024 – Oluwadamilola Aderinoye, a wanted former beauty queen, has surrendered to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) after eight months of hiding.
The agency disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, adding that Aderinoye reported to its Lagos Command on Aug. 28.
According to the statement, Aderinoye escaped from her Lagos residence after operatives raided her apartment at Oral Estate in Lekki on Jan. 24.
The agency had obtained credible intelligence that the Miss Commonwealth Nigeria Culture 2015/2016 and founder of Queen Christmas Foundation was allegedly involved in illicit drugs.
The operatives, upon a raid in her apartment witnessed by the estate officials, recovered 606 grams of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis and an electronic weighing scale.
Other exhibits recovered include 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,” the statement said.
The NDLEA also said its operatives intercepted a total N31,124, 600 pills of tramadol 225mg and bottles of codeine-based syrup worth over N17,932,200,000 in street value at the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, Rivers state and Tincan seaport in Lagos.
“The seizures were made following intelligence processed by the Agency on the movement of the shipments from their port of origin in India, leading to a demand for a 100 percent joint examination of the watch-listed containers with the Nigerian Customs Service and other sister security agencies.
“A breakdown of the seizures showed that 350,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup were recovered from two containers at Tincan port in Lagos between August 29 and 30 — Each of the two containers had 175,000 bottles of the opioid.”
the NDLEA tt the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, intercepted a total of 447 cartons of tramadol 225mg containing 29,840,000 pills of the opioid as well as 380,000 bottles of codeine syrup from three containers on August 29.
The tramadol shipments, the agency said, 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 the opioid 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,” the statement read. (GBN)
