Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a fleeing Lagos socialite and owner of Adekaz Hotels, Alhaji Ademola Afolabi Kazeem, alias Alhaji Abdallah Kazeem Muhammed, 10 days after he was declared wanted over offences bordering on exportation and trafficking of illicit drugs and money laundering.
Spokesman of NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday, said that the agency, on Tuesday, November 1, declared the suspect wanted following his failure to honour invitations and an order granted by a Federal High Court in Lagos.
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He explained that, “The wanted drug kingpin was uncovered as the sponsor of some traffickers arrested by the anti-narcotics agency in their recent attempt to export cocaine to Dubai, UAE, and other destinations outside Nigeria.
“The search for him, however, paid off on Thursday, 10th November, when he was successfully taken into custody where he is currently being interviewed.
“His lid was blown open after the arrest of one of his mules, Bolujoko Muyiwa Babalola, a Lagos BRT driver, on 27th June, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, when he named Alhaji Ademola Kazeem, alias Adekaz, as the owner of the 900g of cocaine he ingested.”
He further said that following Adekaz’s failure to honour invitations, the agency approached a Federal High Court with three prayers: to attach and seal his property on Lagos Island and Ibadan, declare him wanted and block his bank account with a balance of N217m.
In a related development, NDLEA operatives arrested a businesswoman, Okefun Darlington Chisom, over her links with two Pakistanis: Asif Muhammed (45) and Hussain Naveed (57), who were arrested at the Lagos airport with 8kg of cocaine concealed in a sound system while attempting to board a Qatar Airways flight to Lahole, Pakistan, on Saturday November 5.