The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested two France-bound Nigerian ‘businessmen’ at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, after they excreted 200 wraps of cocaine weighing 3.460kg.
This was disclosed in a statement signed by the Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday, November 1, 2026.
According to the statement, the duo, Aliocus Godian Odife and Sam Blackborn, were intercepted on Wednesday, October 28, 2026 during the outward clearance of Air France flight AF 832 from Abuja to Paris.
Odife, who claims to live in France where he works in a factory, had arrived in Nigeria for a short holiday on October 21.
He was however arrested by NDLEA operatives on his return flight few days after when he was subjected to a body scan, which confirmed the presence of foreign objects in his stomach.
Under interview, he admitted to having ingested 110 pellets of cocaine. He was placed under observation during which he excreted all 110 wraps, which tested positive for cocaine with a total weight of 1.901 kilograms.
On the same flight, his co-traveller, Sam Blackborn, was also nabbed by NDLEA officers at the departure hall of the Abuja airport. His body scan likewise returned positive for ingestion, while he confessed to having swallowed 90 pellets of cocaine. Under observation, he excreted all 90 wraps, which tested positive for the class A drug after each excretion and weighed a total of 1.559 kilograms.
In Lagos, NDLEA operatives acting on actionable intelligence on the movement of skunk, a strong strain of cannabis from the Island to the Mainland, on Sunday, October 25, intercepted a white Volkswagen LT 28 bus along Kudirat Abiola Way, Ikeja, where 537 kilograms of the psychoactive substance were recovered. The same day, another team of officers intercepted a brown J5 bus along the Gbagada-Oshodi expressway, with 439 kilograms of the same substance seized.
In Oyo State, NDLEA operatives on Thursday, October 29 conducted a follow-up operation at Idere road, Igboora, where two suspects: Oguntona Nasiru, 46, and Soji Balogun, 47, were arrested while loading 554 kilograms of skunk into a Volvo truck for onward movement into town.
In Kano, NDLEA operatives on Monday, October 26 raided a location in Tsamiya area of Gezawa, where they recovered 247,500 tablets of diazepam weighing 57.7 kilograms and 100,000 tablets of Exol-5 weighing 38.7 kilograms. Two days later, on Wednesday, October 28, another team of officers stormed Dorayi area of the state, where they arrested Ziya’ulhaq Abdullahi, 35, and Garba Muhammed, 52, with 19,250 pills of tramadol 225mg weighing 13.6 kilograms.
In Sokoto, operatives of Zone 7 Command of NDLEA, acting on credible intelligence, on Saturday, October 31 arrested a 68-year-old man, Ibrahim Ayuba, with 236.6 kilograms of skunk.
While commending the officers and men of NAIA, Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Ondo, Oyo and Edo Commands for the arrests and seizures, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), noted that the interception of the two cocaine couriers at Abuja airport is a fresh warning to those who think they can use their residence abroad as cover to traffic drugs across Nigerian borders.
