National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has nabbed a notorious drug baron and former Vice Chairman of Lagos Island East Local Council Development Area, (LCDA), Sakiru Asekun.
NDLEA’s Director, Media & Advocacy, Femi Babafemi in a statement on Wednesday, said Asekun was arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, (MMIA) in Lagos.
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Asekun has been on the wanted list of the MMIA Command, following his connection to one Azeez Ibrahim who was arrested with 6.45kg of cocaine in December 2020.
Lagos drug baron was, however, caught on Friday, 7 May 2021 while trying to board a Virgin Atlantic airline flight to London, United Kingdom.
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.
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According to the statement,
“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.
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“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 N131million was seized from his account and another N14 million also blocked in the account of one of his traffickers, Ibrahim, bringing the total sum so far recovered from him to N145 million.”
The Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Mohamed Marwa while commending the command, said “with the support of all stakeholders,
the problem of drug trafficking and abuse in Nigeria will be drastically reduced very soon.”
Marwa added, “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.”
© ControlTV 2021.
