₦airaland Forum

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a wanted female drug kingpin, Shodunke Yetunde Simbiat, following the recovery of 23.5 kilograms of cocaine concealed in her children’s room at her residence in Lagos.


The arrest comes about 20 months after NDLEA dismantled a cocaine trafficking syndicate operating across Lagos and Ogun states, leading to the arrest of two other kingpins, a couple identified as Bolanle Lookman Dauda and Olayinka Toheebat Dauda, in May 2024.

NDLEA spokesman, Mr. Femi Babafemi, said the suspect had gone underground after the earlier arrests but was eventually tracked down through sustained intelligence and surveillance operations.

He recalled that Lookman and Toheebat Dauda were arrested on Saturday, May 25, 2024, by operatives of the NDLEA Special Operations Unit at Ibiye along the Lagos–Badagry Expressway while attempting to cross the land border to Ghana with a drug consignment.

“At the point of arrest, 42 blocks of cocaine weighing 47.5kg were found on them. A follow-up operation at their residence in Agbara, Ogun State, led to the recovery of an additional 10kg, bringing the total seizure from the couple to 57.5kg of cocaine,” Babafemi said.

Determined to apprehend all members of the syndicate, NDLEA operatives later identified Shodunke Yetunde Simbiat, a 39-year-old female stash keeper, as a key player in the trans-border drug trafficking organisation.

“She was arrested on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, at her residence on Onasanya Street, Surulere, Lagos. A search of her apartment led to the discovery of 23.5kg of cocaine concealed in a black suitcase kept in her children’s room. She admitted ownership of the drugs, valued at over ₦5 billion in street value,” he added.

In another operation, NDLEA officers at the Terminal II departure hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, on Thursday, December 18, intercepted a 36-year-old businessman, Nwanwene Robinson Destiny, while attempting to board a Royal Air Maroc flight to Milan, Italy.


He was found with 1,020 pills of tramadol 225mg and tapentadol 200mg concealed in his luggage. The suspect, who claimed to be based in Italy, said he would have received €200 upon successful delivery of the drugs.


At the Seme border in the Badagry area of Lagos, NDLEA officers arrested a 48-year-old Beninoise woman, Leocardi Josu, on the same day while attempting to cross into Nigeria with 3,400 tablets of tramadol 225mg.

In Kogi State, a 30-year-old suspect, Abdullahi Adamu, was arrested along the Okene–Lokoja highway with 28.4kg of skunk, a strain of cannabis, and Colorado, a synthetic variant, on Friday, December 19.

Similarly, NDLEA operatives in Oyo State recovered 125,000 capsules of tramadol and 1,800 ampoules of pentazocine injection from a Toyota Hiace bus along the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway on the same day.

Two suspects, Ogunlade Kazeem (54) and Adeleke Ismail (30), were also arrested with 185.4kg of skunk at Challenge Motor Park, Ibadan, on Wednesday, December 17.


In Osun State, a total of 405kg of skunk was seized during a raid on Owena/Ijesha forest, where a suspect, Charles James (45), was arrested on Friday, December 19.

Meanwhile, another suspect, Jamilu Zakari (42), was arrested the same day at a tollgate along the Abuja–Kaduna highway with 14,960 pills of tramadol 225mg concealed in two sacks of kolanuts en route from Abuja to Gusau, Zamfara State.

Babafemi said NDLEA commands nationwide also intensified their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation activities in schools, worship centres, workplaces and communities over the past week. These included enlightenment programmes in Anambra, Katsina and Ekiti States, among others.

Commending the operations, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig.-Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), praised officers of the Special Operations Unit and commands at MMIA, Seme, Kogi, Kaduna, Oyo and Osun for their professionalism and operational effectiveness.

He urged all NDLEA personnel to remain vigilant during the festive season and to sustain the highest standards of professionalism in both drug supply and drug demand reduction efforts across the country.

Vice-President Kashim Shettima has warned President Bola Tinubu and other leaders of the All Progressives Congress to avoid complacency ahead of the 2027 electioneering.

“Your excellencies, Rome was not destroyed by outside invaders. Rome was destroyed by the complacency of the Romans. I wish to implore all of us to know that to succeed is much easier than to maintain that success,” stated the vice-president.

Mr Shettima said this during the 14th National Caucus meeting of the All Progressives Congress held at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja.


He restated the need for the APC to sustain its growing dominance nationwide.

The vice-president highlighted the APC’s strength across the six geopolitical zones, drawing attention to the expanding influence in states controlled by new entrants and defectors.

Mr Shettima added, “The whole of the South-South region is in the APC fold—the whole of the North-Central. Out of the seven states in the North West, five are in the APC. Out of the six states in the South-West, four are in the APC.

“Out of the six states in the North-East, four are in the APC. Certainly, we have become a force of nature. I can get one state from the South-South, for instance, and discuss. Who are the power brokers in Delta state, for instance, besides Governor Sheriff?

“We have the immediate vice-presidential candidate of the sinking ship called PDP, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, within our fold. And with Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, the former deputy president of the Senate, for God’s sake, how do you expect us to lose in Delta? And I can recreate the same thing in every state of the federation.”

He reassured governors who recently joined the APC that they had found a home in the ruling party.

Mr Shettima also expressed delight that more politicians were eager to join the party, projecting that the ruling party would remain dominant beyond 2027.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has contradicted President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the 2025 revenue target claim, saying the government has only met N10.7 trillion out of projected N40.8 trillion.

The president had, while addressing stakeholders of the Buhari Organisation who visited him at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, declared that Nigeria had met its revenue target for 2025 ahead of schedule.

The President said the government would no longer rely on borrowing to fund its budget.

Tinubu said his administration’s non-oil revenue drive had yielded enough to meet this year’s projections by August, reducing Nigeria’s dependence on external loans.

“Today I can stand here before you to brag: Nigeria is not borrowing. We have met our revenue target for the year and we met it in August,” Tinubu had said in September.

However, Edun said the federal government has recorded a wide revenue shortfall in the 2025 fiscal year, raising fresh concerns about the sustainability of Nigeria’s public finances.

He stated this on Tuesday during an interactive session with the House of Representatives Committees on Finance and National Planning.

The session was convened to discuss the 2026–2028 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).

This follows the transmission of the MTEF and FSP to the House by President Bola Tinubu last Wednesday for legislative consideration and approval.

According to Edun, the federal government had projected ₦40.8 trillion in revenue for 2025 to finance the ₦54.9 trillion “budget of restoration,” which was designed to stabilise the economy, secure peace, and rebuild prosperity.

He said the actual revenue performance was significantly short of expectations, with total inflows for the year now projected to close at about ₦10.7 trillion.

Edun said, “The current trajectory indicates that federal revenues for the full year will likely end at around ₦10.7 trillion, compared with the ₦40.8 trillion that was projected.”

He attributed the shortfall largely to weak oil and gas revenues, particularly lower-than-expected collections from Petroleum Profit Tax and Company Income Tax paid by oil and gas companies.

The minister also cited underperformance across several non-oil revenue subheads, compounding the pressure on government finances.

Additionally, Edun disclosed that the government had borrowed about ₦14.1 trillion during the year in an effort to bridge the funding gap created by the revenue shortfall.

A faction of the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, led by its chairman Alhaji Taminu Turaki, is currently holding a closed-door meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo.


PHOTOS: Turaki, ex-govs, PDP leaders, Obasanjo in closed-door meeting
Turaki, alongside former governors of Nigeria and Plateau States, Alhaji Muazu Babangida and Sen Jonah Jang, and other senior party leaders, arrived at the former president’s residence within the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, at about 11:38am on Saturday.


PHOTOS: Turaki, ex-govs, PDP leaders, Obasanjo in closed-door meeting
The PDP leaders subsequently proceeded for a private meeting with Obasanjo.


PHOTOS: Turaki, ex-govs, PDP leaders, Obasanjo in closed-door meeting
Details of the discussions have yet to be released.



PHOTOS: Turaki, ex-govs, PDP leaders, Obasanjo in closed-door meeting
Ahead of the 2023 PDP presidential primaries Obasanjo, in May 2022, held a closed-door meeting with three PDP governors in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Obasanjo, then, met with Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State and a former Cross River Governor, Donald Duke.

Earlier in January, the same year, Obasanjo told leaders of opposition PDP that he won’t return to the party, when a PDP delegation led by the National Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, four former governors, and members of the party’s National Working Committee visited him at his residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Muhammadu Sanusi, Emir of Kano, says Nigeria’s political elite deliberately sabotage the country’s progress by treating public office as “family business”.

Speaking on Wednesday at the 15th anniversary of Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria in Lagos, Sanusi said the political class sidestepped opportunities for national development because “public office is about themselves, their families, and people close to them, not about the country or the citizens”.

“We have done enough damage and maybe we need to stop. And I think this is the point Omobola is making about missed opportunities. Not just missed opportunities, I think sometimes deliberately missed opportunities,” he said.

“The reason we miss these opportunities is because we have people who think public office is about themselves, it’s about their families, it’s about people close to them, it’s not about the country. But public office is about the citizens.”

He urged young Nigerians to reject the dysfunctional country that has been “manufactured” for them and build one that fulfils its true potential.

The former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said the current system is one built on “ethnic rivalries, religious conflicts, and competition for personal aggrandizement”, adding that Nigerian youths must unite across all strata and articulate a clear, achievable vision for a different nation.

“The important thing for me is that as citizens, each and every one of us will remember that the nation belongs to us. It does not belong to the government, it does not belong to politicians, it belongs to us,” he said.

“We own this country and wherever we find ourselves, we must remember that we are holding one small part of Nigeria and we have a duty to do what we must, to contribute our own quota to this country.

“What we need to do is try to come together and articulate a clear and achievable ideological position, a vision for what kind of Nigeria we want to have.

“And it has to be a Nigeria different from the Nigeria that has been manufactured for us, a Nigeria of ethnic rivalries, religious conflicts, race seeking, competition for aggrandizement.

“It has to be a country that realises its potential in the committee of nations.”

Tinubu Orders NSA Ribadu To Immediately Train, Arm More Forest Guards To Tackle Kidnapping, Terror Attacks

President Bola Tinubu has directed the National Security Adviser (NSA) to begin the immediate training, arming, and deployment of additional forest guards nationwide as part of renewed efforts to confront Nigeria’s worsening insecurity.

The directive was disclosed on Wednesday in a statement issued by Sunday Dare, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications.

According to the presidency, Tinubu said the country continues to battle rampant cases of kidnapping, banditry, and terrorism—threats he insists require a more aggressive and coordinated response.

"We face challenges here and there of kidnapping and terrorism. We need all the forces we can utilize," the President was quoted as saying. “We need to protect our people.”

SaharaReporters previously reported that the Senate on Tuesday began consideration of President Bola Tinubu’s request seeking approval to deploy Nigerian troops to the Benin Republic as part of efforts to safeguard the neighbouring country’s democratic institutions.

The request, contained in a letter read on the Senate floor by President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, detailed Tinubu’s explanation that the troops would be sent on a Peace Mission “in compliance with Section 5(4) Part II of the 1999 Constitution” and after “due consultations with the National Defence Council.”

Tinubu informed lawmakers that the deployment followed a formal plea from the Republic of Benin in response to the attempted military coup in the country over the weekend.

The Senate subsequently referred the request to the ‘Committee of the Whole’ for immediate deliberation, with lawmakers expected to debate the scope, legality and implications of the proposed deployment in the coming hours.