NDLEA seizes 3 tonnes of Ghana cannabis in Ilorin lorry
NDLEA officers intercepted a lorry loaded with compressed cannabis hidden under secondhand clothes at Okolowo, Ilorin, on 8 November 2018, arresting two of its three occupants. The agency said the roughly three-tonne consignment came from Ghana and was bound for Togo and Benin, worth at least N250 million.
NDLEA officers, acting on intelligence, intercepted a lorry with registration number BDG 998 XU at the Okolowo area of Ilorin at about 11.30pm on Thursday, finding compressed cannabis sativa concealed in bags of secondhand clothes.[1][2]Two of the three occupants, Ayomide Azeez and Ismail Kabir, were arrested and paraded with the impounded lorry and its contents.[1]
The agency estimated the consignment at about three tonnes of compressed cannabis worth at least N250 million in the open market.[1][2]It said the drug originated from Ghana and was being moved through Ilorin to Togo and Benin Republic.[1]
Assistant Commander Dandi Emmanuel, who announced the seizure on Friday, said taking the consignment off the market mattered and appealed for logistics support for the command.[1]The state drug control committee chairperson Barakat Olarewaju called the seizure a good development and urged parents and young people against drug abuse.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The second account reprints the Punch report, so both draw on the same NDLEA briefing; the Tribune's separate account of this seizure could not be opened for this report.
What happened to the third occupant of the lorry and to the two arrested men in court was not reported in these sources.
NDLEA operatives stopped a car on the Auchi-Ibillo Road in Akoko Edo, Edo State, and seized 19 bags of cannabis weighing 201 kg in a roundup of cannabis seizures reported on 8 November 2026. The same roundup reported a Benin City drug-joint raid, three arrests at a Taraba checkpoint with 226.255 kg of compressed cannabis, and further raids in Ondo and Lagos.
NDLEA operatives recovered 1,818 kg of cannabis packed in 148 bags in a raid on Odofin Road, Uso, in Ondo State, destroyed a one-hectare cannabis farm in Board Forest and recovered a further 242 kg. Officers arrested 36-year-old Itoro Linus Akpan in operations reported on 8 November 2026.
NDLEA officers found 16.15 kg of Loud cannabis hidden in two wooden sofas from Houston at Lagos airport on 4 November 2026. A freight agent who came to clear the cargo and a caterer who came to collect it were arrested.
NDLEA officers at Lagos airport found 1.20 kilogrammes of cannabis in two of nine parcels hidden in cartons of snacks from the United Kingdom, and arrested a 51-year-old freight agent who came to clear them. The other seven parcels held chemicals for making synthetic cannabis, and a sting in late October 2026 led to a second arrest.