The arrest was made on Friday, August 22, 2025, at a motor park in the Jibowu area of Yaba, Lagos. Ezewuike, who owns Golden Star Creation, a fashion business based in the Okota area of Lagos, was reportedly caught while trying to board a bus with the illegal consignment hidden beneath clothing designed to resemble a pregnant belly.
According to NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi, the agency conducted a follow-up raid on her residence at Ago Palace Way, Okota, where officers recovered an additional 200 grams of a chemical cutting agent commonly used in processing cocaine.
In her statement to NDLEA operatives, Ezewuike, who has been in the fashion business for over two decades and is a mother of one, claimed she was introduced to the drug trade by her late husband, who passed away two years ago. “The widow who is a mother of one and proprietress of Golden Star Creation, a fashion outfit in Ago Palace Way, Okota, Lagos, was arrested at a bus terminal in Jibowu, Yaba area of the state on Friday, 22nd August 2025, while attempting to move the cocaine consignment to customers in Abuja,” Babafemi stated. “A follow-up operation at her house in the Ago Palace area led to the recovery of 200 grams of cutting agent used in the production of a strain of cocaine.”
In a separate operation in Lagos, NDLEA officers intercepted a shipment of 90parcels of Loud, a potent strain of cannabis weighing 48.6 kilograms. The drugs had been smuggled into the country from the United States, concealed in three cartons containing kitchen sinks. The seizure was made on Tuesday, August 19, at a courier firm by operatives from the agency’s Directorate of Operations and General Investigation.
Further north, NDLEA operatives in Adamawa conducted a raid based on intelligence, targeting the residence of a notorious drug trafficker, Idris Garba. Although Garba managed to escape by scaling a fence, his associate, 55-year-old Boniface Nnaji, was caught attempting to flee. The operation, which took place in the Rumde Baru area of Yola South on August 22, led to the seizure of a black Toyota Thundra with plate number FST-885-CZ, allegedly driven by Nnaji to deliver a massive quantity of tramadol tablets — totaling 354,480 pills — to Garba. Also recovered at the scene was a Toyota Yaris with registration number DSA 776 AA.
In Kano State, arrests and seizures continued as operatives apprehended Buhari Ibrahim, 25, and Mansur Musa, 24, at Zangon Ungogo on August 19 with 5,850 pregabalin capsules. That same day, officials discovered a stockpile of 452,070 opioid pills at a residence belonging to a suspect, Rabilu Mukhtar, who is currently on the run. Additionally, on the same day in the Tashan Rami area, a suspect identified as Buhari Idris, 35, was arrested with 140 litres of codeine syrup. Another interception followed on August 23, when 29-year-old Adamu Yusuf was caught along the Zaria-Kano highway with nearly 7,000 tramadol capsules.
Meanwhile, in the Federal Capital Territory, two dispatch riders were taken into custody for distributing illicit drugs within the city.
Similar anti-drug operations also took place across several states including Taraba, Edo, Delta, Ondo, and Ekiti, where NDLEA operatives dismantled large-scale cannabis farms and storage facilities.
