The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a notorious drug kingpin, 36-year-old Sunday Ibigide, in Asaba, Delta State, three years after he went underground to evade arrest.
Ibigide was apprehended on Sunday, August 10, 2025, alongside his aide, Clement Osuya, 27, while attempting to transport 250 blocks of skunk weighing 138kg in a distribution bus. He had been on the run since March 2022 after being linked to the seizure of 24.137kg of skunk and 10 grams of molly.
In a week-long nationwide operation, NDLEA operatives also destroyed over 48,000kg of cannabis on large farms across Enugu and Taraba states, intercepted millions of opioid pills and codeine-based syrups, and arrested multiple traffickers, including a woman and her son in Lagos.
At the Port Harcourt Ports Complex, Onne, Rivers State, operatives recovered 875,000 bottles of codeine syrup valued at N6.1bn and 3.5 million pills of Trodol Benzhexol worth N1.7bn from five containers flagged under intelligence watch.
Other major seizures include:
Enugu State: 37,500kg of cannabis destroyed on 15 hectares of farmland; 20,700 pills of opioids seized; and multiple arrests.
Lagos State: 52-year-old woman, Muyibat Mumuni, and her son Faruk, 25, arrested with 149kg of Ghana Loud; another suspect nabbed with 8.5kg of Canadian Loud in Lekki.
Gombe & Kogi States: A combined 465,800 capsules of tramadol seized in separate operations.
Taraba State: 11,250kg of skunk destroyed in Tanmiya forest, with tramadol recovered at checkpoints.
Kaduna & Kano States: Multiple arrests with tramadol, rohypnol, and skunk recovered.
Badagry, Lagos: 4,320 ampoules of ketamine intercepted at Gbaji checkpoint.
The Agency also intensified its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization campaign, engaging traditional rulers, community leaders, and institutions across Niger, Nasarawa, and Borno states.
NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), commended officers involved in the nationwide operations, urging them to sustain their “balanced approach” in curbing drug trafficking and abuse.