Three kingpins and 16 others have been sentenced to a total of 302 years in prison for trafficking and dealing in illicit drugs such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, cannabis and opioids following their arrest and diligent prosecution by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, said in a statement yesterday that the 19 convicts top the list of 414 drug traffickers and dealers convicted by the Federal High Court in Benue, Bauchi, Edo, Lagos, Ogun, Gombe and the FCT between July 1 and July 31, 2024 based on charges filed against them by the anti-narcotics agency. One of the kingpins, 50-year-old Bolanle Lookman Dauda, was arrested in an intelligence-led raid by operatives of a special operation unit in NDLEA at Ibiye, along Lagos-Badagry expressway while attempting to cross the land border to deliver the consignment in Ghana on May 25, 2024.
He was subsequently arraigned before Hon. Justice Ambrose Allagoa of the Federal High Court, Lagos in charge number FHC/L/537C/2024. In his judgment delivered on July 19, 2024, Justice Allagoa convicted and sentenced him to 21 years imprisonment or payment of an option of N30million fine.
Another kingpin is 34-year-old Ikeh Stanley Ifeanyi who was arrested at the popular Idumota market in Lagos Island, where no fewer than 1,100 ampoules of lethal synthetic opioid, fentanyl, weighing 6.480kg were recovered from him. The NDLEA said the dangerous opioid is 100 times more potent than heroin and curre.