Ms. Aderinoye Queen Christmas, a former beauty queen also known as Ms. Queen Oluwadamilola Aderinoye, has turned herself in to the Lagos Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). Her surrender comes after spending nearly eight months in hiding.
The NDLEA declared Ms. Aderinoye wanted in January when she fled her residence in Lekki, Lagos, during a raid conducted by the agency. The raid took place at Oral Estate following credible intelligence that she was involved in the trafficking of illicit substances.
Mr. Femi Babafemi, the NDLEA’s Director of Media & Advocacy, stated in a press release on Sunday that the raid occurred on Wednesday, January 24. Ms. Aderinoye, who held the title of Miss Commonwealth Nigeria Culture 2015/2016 and is the founder of Queen Christmas Foundation, had her home thoroughly searched. Among the items recovered were 606 grams of Canadian Loud—a potent synthetic strain of cannabis—an electronic weighing scale, large quantities of drug packaging materials, a black RAV 4 SUV with the registration number Lagos KSF 872 GQ, and a framed picture of her.
The statement also revealed that Ms. Aderinoye claimed to have been hiding in Akure, Ondo State, since January. She finally surrendered to the NDLEA on Wednesday, August 28.
In related developments, NDLEA operatives seized 1,122 kilograms of cannabis from a suspect named Mustapha Ibrahim on Monday, August 26, during an arrest along Orchid Road, Ajah, Lagos. Additionally, 816 kilograms of cannabis linked to another suspect who remains at large were recovered from the same location that day.
Further arrests were made in Niger State, where NDLEA operatives apprehended a suspect, Friday Gabriel, on Monday, August 26, along the Minna-Suleja road. He was found transporting 1,900 capsules of tramadol, 300 bottles of codeine syrup, and 600 packets of exol-5 tablets.
Similarly, in Bauchi State on Saturday, August 31, two suspects—Garba Muhammed, 35, and Usman Yakubu Shehu, 31—were arrested along the Bauchi-Gombe road. They were caught transporting 308 blocks of cannabis, weighing 246.4 kilograms, concealed in a false compartment of a J5 bus with the registration number Edo State URM 38 ZY.
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