A suspected drug baron and former Vice Chairman of Lagos Island East Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Asekun Kehinde Sakiru, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos State, with cocaine found concealed in five pairs of slippers in his luggage.
The arrest was made known by the Director, of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, in a statement issued on Wednesday, May 12, 2021 from NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja.
Babafemi disclosed that Asekun had been on the wanted list of the NDLEA following the recent arrest of some traffickers and the seizure of drugs linked to him.
He said that the long arm of the law however caught up with the wanted baron at about 9.40pm on Friday, May 7, while trying to board a Virgin Atlantic airline flight to London, United Kingdom at the Lagos airport.
Babafemi said: “At the point of his arrest, Asekun was caught with a kilogramme of cocaine concealed in five pairs of palm slippers packed inside his suitcase.
“He has been on the wanted list of the MMIA Command of the Agency in connection to a case involving one Azeez Adeniyi Ibrahim, who was arrested with 6.45kg of cocaine in December, 2020.
“During preliminary investigation, it was gathered that the London-based baron is a seasoned politician. He was at different times between 2004 and 2014 the Vice Chairman of Lagos Island East LCDA. He had also contested and lost elections for House of Representatives in 2007 and Lagos State House of Assembly in 2015.
“Although, he claims to be an international businessman who deals in automobiles, investigation is yet to confirm that to be the source of his acquired wealth.
“In the course of tracking him, the sum of N131 million was seized from his account and another N14 million also blocked in the account of one of his traffickers, Azeez Adeniyi Ibrahim, bringing the total sum so far recovered from him to N145 million.
The Head of Media and Publicity stated further that the Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), while commending the officers and men of the MMIA Command of the Agency for resilience and dedication to duty, assured that the problem of drug trafficking and abuse in Nigeria would be drastically reduced very soon, with the support of all stakeholders.
“This arrest is yet another message and red alert to those still in this criminal trade, whether as barons or traffickers, that they will soon enter the dragnet of the Agency, daily being spread across the country, if they fail to back out, especially now that we are moving all out for the barons and the big cartels while we continue to reign in the traffickers,” Gen. Marwa further warned in his reaction on Wednesday.
