I did it to raise money for my daughter’s exam fees – Arrested man who concealed 400g of coc@ine in a footwear

A 56-year-old man Lawal Lateef Oyenuga and his recruiter, Wasiu Sanni Gbolahan aka teacher, have been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, for dr#g trafficking.

It is reported that the duo were part of a major coc@ine syndicate in Lagos. Spokesperson of the agency, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday, said Lawal who was headed to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airways flight, was arrested on Thursday, November 24, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos

He was caught with a pair of black palm sandals in this luggage. A thorough examination of the sandals revealed they were used to conceal two parcels of coc@ine weighing 400 grams.

In his statement, Oyenuga claimed he was recruited to traffic the dr#g by Wasiu Sanni Gbolahan aka Teacher, adding that he was first given some pellets of coc@ine to swallow but when he couldnt do that, then he was given the ones concealed in the palm sandals. He said he resorted to the criminal trade to raise money to pay an examination fee for his daughter who is in Senior Secondary School class 3.

The Agency’s database reveals Wasiu has been linked to some previous attempts to traffic coc@ine to Saudi Arabia and Dubai, UAE. He was earlier named as the one who recruited a BRT driver, Bolajoko Muyiwa Babalola for Lagos socialite and owner of Adekaz Hotels, Alhaji Ademola Afolabi Kazeem (a.k.a Alhaji Abdallah Kazeem Muhammed) to traffic dr¥gs to Dubai. Bolajoko was arrested on June 27 while taking 900 grams of co@ine to Dubai while Ademola Kazeem was nabbed on November 10, barely 10 days after he was declared wanted by NDLEA.

A follow up operation in the early hours of Friday, November 25, led to the arrest of the kingpin, Teacher, who specialises in recruiting mules for dr#g barons in Lagos and its environs at his residence located in Ikorodu area of Lagos. The 64-year-old Wasiu is a housing and property agent, with seven children and four wives, one of whom is now late.