Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), have arrested the founder and General Overseer of The Turn of Mercy Church, Prophet Adefolusho Aanu Olasele (alias Abbas Ajakaiye) for masterminding multiple shipments of illicit drugs into Nigeria.
The anti-narcotics agency’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this on a statement on Sunday.
According to him, Olasele who had fled abroad to evade arrest, and who had been hiding in Ghana since June, was arrested at his church located in Okun Ajah, Ogombo road, Lekki area of Lagos on Sunday 3rd August 2025. NDLEA officers had waited for him to conclude the Sunday service from morning until the evening before moving in on him the moment he stepped out of the church premises.
Operatives had begun trailing him following the seizure of two shipments of Ghana Loud, a strain of cannabis linked to him. The first seizure of 200kg of the psychoactive substance was made at Okun Ajah beach on 4th June 2025 while another consignment of 700kg of same substance was recovered from his delivery van on 6th July 2025.
In his statement, Olasele admitted to ferrying the illicit consignments through the waterways from Ghana into Nigeria, adding that he had fled to the West African country to hide after he escaped arrest twice in the recent past.
In another operation in Lagos, NDLEA operatives on Thursday 7th August raided an apartment at Kishi House 11 Layi Ajayi Bembe street, Parkview Estate Ikoyi, where they arrested a suspect, Benjamin Udo Ukoh, and recovered 32 pouches of Canadian Loud, a strain of Cannabis with a total weight of 15.63kg.
In Nasarawa state, NDLEA operatives on Saturday 9th August recovered a large consignment of skunk, a strain of cannabis weighing 3,093 kilograms from the trio of Emmanuel Asoquo Johnny, 51; Okem Raphael, 33, and Chekwube Odo, 25, at New Karu area of the state.
While 29-year-old Nura Yahaya was nabbed at Geza area of Kumbotso Kano State with 639 blocks of skunk weighing 359kg on Friday 8th August, another suspect Umar Adamu Umar, 27,was taken into custody on Wednesday 6th August by NDLEA officers after seizing 9kg of Colorado, a synthetic strain of cannabis from him along Zaria-Kano road, Kano.
While commending the officers and men of the various commands where arrests and seizures were made, for their dexterity, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) enjoined them and their colleagues across the country to continue with the ongoing balanced approach to the drug control efforts of the agency.
