NDLEA arrest repentant Boko Haram member, monarch for drug trafficking

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a rehabilitated Boko Haram fighter, Alayi Madu, for drug trafficking.

The agency also arrested a traditional ruler of Kajola, a border community between Ondo and Edo state, Baale Akinola Adebayo, over the possession of illicit drugs.

Operatives of the NDLEA arrested the criminals as part of ongoing operations to mop up illicit drugs across the country ahead of the next round of elections.

26-year-old Alayi Madu, who was a Boko Haram fighter for 15 years before he surrendered to the Nigerian military in 2021 was intercepted by NDLEA operatives on Thursday 9th March along Abuja-Kaduna express road with 10 kilograms of skunk.

Madu told the officers that he bought the drug in Ibadan, Oyo State, and was taking the consignment concealed in a sack to Maiduguri, Borno State.

In his statement, Madu said he is from Banki town, Borno State, and joined Boko Haram in  2006 when he was nine years old.

He said he repented and surrendered to the military in 2021, after which he underwent rehabilitation processes at Umaru Shehu rehabilitation centre in Maiduguri and Malam Sidi de-radicalisation centre in Gombe before he was discharged after spending six months.

Thereafter, he travelled to Ibadan, Oyo State where he worked as a commercial motorcycle rider (Okada rider) before going into drug trafficking and his eventual arrest along the Abuja-Kaduna Express road.

According to the NDLEA, the officers in the early hours of Friday 10th March, stormed Kajola forest in the Kajola community, a border town between Edo and Ondo States where they destroyed three cannabis farms measuring 39.801546 hectares.

The owner of the farms who claims to be the Ba’ale of Kajola, Akinola Adebayo, 35, was arrested on the farm at 2:30 am, while two other suspects believed to be his workers: Arikuyeri Abdulrahman, 23, and Habibu Ologun, 25, were also nabbed in a hut near the farms.

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