Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a 69-year-old Nigerian medical doctor for his alleged role in a cocaine trafficking network.
The agency also detained an Ivorian national, Gohouri Michael, 41, at Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport during outward clearance on an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Milan, Italy, via Addis Ababa.
According to an NDLEA statement on Sunday, Mr Gohouri had ingested 82 wraps of cocaine weighing 1.49kg. He arrived in Lagos from Milan on 17 January 2026, spent three weeks shuttling between Lagos and Enugu, then moved to Kano, where he ingested the consignment in his hotel room. He was promised €5,000 upon delivery in Milan.
Further intelligence traced the operation’s coordinator to Ogun State, leading to the arrest of Dr Chudi Ofomata at his residence in Teachers’ Land Estate, Magboro, Obafemi Owode Local Government Area, on 27 March 2026. He was later flown to Kano on 7 April. Recovered from him were 63g of promazepam and seven ampoules of promethazine injection.
In a separate operation on 7 April, NDLEA officers intercepted a Chisco Transport luxury bus on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway bound for Port Harcourt, seizing 15kg of skunk (a potent cannabis strain) concealed in a compartment. Two suspects, Kingsley Nsofor and Opara Ifeanyi, were arrested.
Other recent seizures include: 7.7kg of skunk from a nonagenarian, Pa Friday Ahukanna Chigbu, in Abia State; 34kg from three suspects in Ogun; 56.2kg from a 26-year-old woman in Imo; and 118kg from a couple’s kitchen in Takuti village, Lapai LGA, Niger State. In Borno, a trailer carrying Rohypnol tablets, codeine syrup and pentazocine injections was intercepted, and in Mushin, Lagos, 26,800 bottles of codeine-based syrup were seized with two arrests.
