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NDLEA Arrests Teacher for Recruiting Mules for Drug Cartel

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Drug Dealers NDLEA

By Adedapo Adesanya

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), at the weekend, disrupted the activities of a major cocaine syndicate in Lagos following the arrest of a 56-year-old man, Mr Lawal Lateef Oyenuga, who was caught on a mission to deliver 400 grams of class A drug concealed in a pair of palm sandals in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

This led to the swift follow-up arrest of a wanted suspect, Mr Wasiu Sanni Gbolahan, popularly known as Teacher, who the authority says recruits mules for the cartel.

NDLEA operatives attached to the screening point of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos had on Thursday, November 24 intercepted Mr Oyenuga with a pair of black palm sandals packed in the luggage he was going with to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airways flight.

A thorough examination of the sandals revealed they were used to conceal two parcels of cocaine weighing 400 grams. This is barely a week after a 56-year-old widow and mother of four, Mrs Ajisegiri Kehinde Sidika, was arrested at the airport over her attempt to traffic 400 grams of cocaine concealed in her footwear to Makkah, Saudi Arabia, on board a Qatar Airways flight.

In his statement, Mr Oyenuga claimed he was recruited to traffic the drug by Teacher, adding that he was first given some pellets of cocaine to swallow, but when he couldn’t do that, then he was given the ones concealed in the palm sandals.

He said he resorted to the criminal trade to raise money to pay an examination fee for his daughter in Senior Secondary School class 3.

The agency’s database reveals Teacher has been linked to previous attempts to traffic cocaine to Saudi Arabia and Dubai, UAE.

He was earlier named as the one who recruited a BRT driver, Mr Bolajoko Muyiwa Babalola, for Lagos socialite and owner of Adekaz Hotels, Mr Ademola Afolabi Kazeem (a.k.a Alhaji Abdallah Kazeem Muhammed) to traffic drugs to Dubai. Mr Bolajoko was arrested on June 27 while taking 900 grams of cocaine to Dubai while Ademola Kazeem was nabbed on Thursday, November 10, barely 10 days after he was declared wanted by NDLEA.

A follow-up operation in the early hours of Friday, November 25, led to the arrest of the kingpin, Teacher, who specialises in recruiting mules for drug barons in Lagos and its environs at his residence located in the Ikorodu area of Lagos. The 64-year-old man is a housing and property agent with seven children and four wives, one of whom is now late.

In another follow-up operation to the seizure of 1.10kg cannabis concealed in bottles of body cream going to Dubai on September 9, the actual owner of the consignment, Mr Wordu Hopewell Chukwuemeka, who runs a boutique business in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, was arrested in the Garden City on Thursday, November 24.

Similarly, operatives attached to the NAHCO import shed of the Lagos airport on Tuesday, November 24, intercepted a consolidated cargo from Johannesburg, South Africa, via an Airpeace Airline flight.

The cargo contained different items, including cloths, cereals, baby toys, drinks, and a set of two big black speakers, which were used to conceal 25 parcels of Loud variant of cannabis, with a gross weight of 5.5kg.

In a similar vein, operatives attached to the SAHCO export shed of the airport the same Tuesday intercepted a carton of food items used to conceal 500 grams of cannabis going to Dubai, UAE, while the owner, Uzoma Kingsley, was promptly arrested.

In a related development, an attempt by an organised criminal group to traffic 131kg of Ephedrine, a dominant precursor chemical for the production of Methamphetamine, to Congo Kinshasa through the SAHCO export shed of the airport was foiled on Monday, November 21, by NDLEA operatives in conjunction with Aviation Security (AVSEC) officers of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). Two freight agents, namely Mr Nwazuru Georgewill and Mr Saheed Muritala, linked to the bid, were promptly arrested.

Meanwhile, an attempt by a suspected drug trafficker, Mr Udogwu James Johnson, facing multiple charges of drug offences, to flee the country after he jumped bail has been thwarted by NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt International Airport, where he was arrested on Friday, November 25.

The 51-year-old suspect was already facing trial at a Federal High Court in Lagos before he was arrested again on Saturday, April 9, in Port Harcourt for importing 5.48kg cocaine concealed in lotion plastic bottles sealed with candle wax.

He was granted bail by a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, November 23, over his latest offence while the Lagos court had issued a warrant of arrest against him for jumping bail over his case in Lagos.

At the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, the move by a Brazilian returnee, Iroegbute Ejike Francis, 46, to smuggle 4kg cocaine soaked in towels stuffed in his hand luggage into the country was foiled on Thursday, November 24, by NDLEA officers who arrested him, upon his arrival on a Qatar Airlines flight from Brazil -Doha-Abuja.

No fewer than 5,851.3 kilograms (5.8 tons) of cannabis Sativa were seized from dealers across five states in the past week, including a notorious cripple, Ibrahim Yusuf, 45, who was arrested on Monday 21st Nov. at Gasline, Ifo, Ogun state with 4kg of the psychotropic substance, while a total of 36 bags weighing 570kg of the same substance were recovered in another raid at a forest in Ogunmakin town, Obafemi Owode LGA.

In Edo, operatives on Tuesday, November 22, evacuated 141 bags of Cannabis Sativa with a gross weight of 1,884 kg (1.884 tons) stored in a warehouse in Okpe forest, Akoko Edo LGA, while on Thursday, November 24, NDLEA officers arrested Ismaila Abubakar, 50, at Okada junction, Ovia South West LGA with 22 bags of C/S weighing 216.5kg. A day after, operatives also seized 112 bags of C/S stored in Obi Camp forest, Ovia South West LGA weighing 1,512kg.

This was also followed by another seizure of 45 bags that weighed 529.5kg, while officers equally intercepted a Toyota Sienna bus with Reg. No. BDG 598 FZ (Lagos) loaded with 566.5kg cannabis going to Onitsha, Anambra State, and a suspect, Mr Sunday Mathias, 30, was arrested with the seizure.

Meanwhile, in Ondo state, NDLEA operatives stormed Oke-Ogun forest on Friday, November 25, where a Mr Onyebuchi Chime was arrested with 88kg cannabis, a gun, and some ammunition while they also recovered 149.5kg of the substance at Ipele forest. Not less than 12.42 hectares of cannabis farms were destroyed, and 195kg of processed weeds of the substance were recovered at Efon Alaye, Ekiti State, where two dealers, Mr Richard Ebong and Mr Nze Abraham, were arrested on Saturday, November 26.

In Oyo state, operatives arrested a 27-year-old Mrs Adebayo Rahmat on Thursday, November 24, at Sabo-Ilupeju, Atiba LGA, with 136.3kg cannabis, while no fewer than 84,000 pills of Tramadol tablets were recovered from a suspect, Mr Muhsin Abdullahi in Bodinga area of Sokoto state same day.

In another development, 16,000 pills of Exol-5 and D5 concealed in palm oil were seized from Lawal Rabe, 24, on Friday, November 25, at Kokami village, Danta LGA, Katsina, while a total of 54,500 tablets of Tramadol and Exol-5 were seized from the duo of Mr Basiru Muhammadu and Mr Saidu Yusuf in the same area on Saturday, November 26.

Adedapo Adesanya is a journalist, polymath, and connoisseur of everything art. When he is not writing, he has his nose buried in one of the many books or articles he has bookmarked or simply listening to good music with a bottle of beer or wine. He supports the greatest club in the world, Manchester United F.C.

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Why Ad Platform Policy Changes Are a Hidden Risk in Every Outsourced Paid Media Relationship

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white label ppc management

The rules governing digital advertising landscapes are never set in stone. Major platforms like Google, Meta, and TikTok frequently update their privacy frameworks, compliance requirements, and algorithmic bidding logic without giving agencies much time to prepare. When a marketing team decides to delegate its active campaigns to an external production partner, these sudden policy shifts can introduce a major element of vulnerability into the relationship. Integrating a professional white label ppc management structure allows your business to scale production and tap into high-level optimization talent without building a massive internal department. However, if your fulfillment partner is not built to monitor, interpret, and rapidly deploy adjustments in response to changing platform guidelines, your clients risk facing sudden account suspensions or massive spikes in customer acquisition costs.

Decoupling Technical Adaptability from Account Ownership

When an advertising platform changes its rules, the changes need to be made away in the live ad accounts. This is so the ads do not stop working. Sometimes there is a problem when one team thinks another team is taking care of making sure the ads follow the rules. The team that is supposed to make sure everything is working thinks the other team is doing this job. This can cause problems like missing information and ads that do not work. To keep your clients happy, you need a plan that says who is in charge of checking for rule changes, who updates the ad information, and who updates the ad text rules when the advertising platform changes its rules. You need to know who does what so everything runs smoothly. Advertising platforms and ad accounts are important for your clients.

Managing the Financial Fallouts of Compliance Delays

The real-world financial cost of failing to adapt to sudden policy changes can ruin an agency’s reputation and cause high client turnover. If an automated ad platform updates its rules for a specific industry—such as healthcare, real estate, or finance—and your campaign structure fails to adjust within the grace period, entire accounts can be paused overnight. While your backend team works to fix the errors, your client loses valuable inbound leads while their fixed overhead costs remain. Agencies must make sure their fulfillment partners don’t just focus on basic optimization but also maintain a proactive stance toward platform compliance to prevent budget waste and operational downtime.

Maintaining Strategic Alignment Through Platform Shifts

Relying on a partner to manage the daily execution of your paid media means you must remain highly aligned on how macro-level platform changes alter your broader strategy. When networks restrict traditional targeting methods, your backend white label ppc management team must quickly pivot to alternative solutions, such as first-party data loops or contextual targeting systems. If your vendor operates on autopilot without adjusting to these shifts, your campaigns will slowly lose efficiency as the old targeting methods become obsolete. Regular strategy sessions are essential to confirm that your optimization partners are actively adjusting their setups to remain effective beneath the latest network rules.

Building a Resilient Operations Partnership

To do well with ad networks, you need to work together with your partners and be able to change quickly. You also need to be open with each other. Ad agencies can not just set up their paid media. Forget about it. They need to keep an eye on it and make changes when needed. If you work closely with the company that provides your white-label service, you can protect your business from losing money. You should expect this company to tell you about changes to the network rules and to take action. The best partnerships are the ones where people work together all the time and make changes fast. This helps your clients make money consistently from their investments even when the rules of the ad networks change. Modern ad networks are always changing, so you need to be able to change with them to do well. Modern ad networks require a lot of work to navigate successfully.

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Atiku Accuses Tinubu of Plot to Turn Nigeria into One-Party State

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By Adedapo Adesanya

Former Vice President and the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mr Atiku Abubakar, has alleged that President Bola Tinubu is determined to turn Nigeria into a de facto one-party state, condemning attempts to frustrate the registration of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).

Mr Atiku’s reaction followed a ruling by the Federal High Court in Lokoja, Kogi State, which set aside its December 10, 2025, judgment directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to register the NDC as a political party.

The presiding judge, Isah Dashen, ruled that the Peace Movement Party (PMP) should have been joined in the suit because its interests were affected by the case.

Responding to the judgment in a statement issued by the Atiku Media Office, the former Vice President said he was not surprised by what he described as a disturbing development, warning that it could have grave consequences if what he called a plot to weaken opposition parties in favour of Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid succeeds.

According to Mr Atiku, the participation of citizens in free, fair and credible elections is the foundation of democracy, and any attempt to deny Nigerians that freedom of choice could trigger “chaos and anarchy.”

“Nigerians are now seeing the true colours of President Tinubu, who pretends to be a democrat, but his body language and the sinister activities of his agents contradict his mouthed commitment to free and fair elections,” he said.

He urged President Tinubu to emulate the late President Muhammadu Buhari, noting that despite being a retired military officer turned politician, he never deregistered any opposition party. He also cited former President Goodluck Jonathan, whom he said upheld the principle that political ambition should never be worth the blood of any citizen.

“If you’re truly popular and your policies have positively bettered the lives of the citizens, you shouldn’t be afraid of a free and fair competition,” he explained.

“Tinubu cannot be a champion of democracy under military dictatorship and now become the worst enemy of everything that democracy stands for.”

“You can’t attempt to rule the people against their will and still pretend that you’re committed to free and fair elections in 2027,” Mr Atiku stated.

The former Vice President also urged members of the judiciary to resist political interference, warning judges against allowing themselves to be used by politicians seeking to undermine Nigeria’s democracy.

“Governments will come and go. Hence, the judiciary must guard its integrity as the last hope of the masses. Don’t allow unscrupulous politicians to stain your reputation for their own short-term gain at the expense of justice. The judiciary is the last hope of the people. Let’s avoid anything that is capable of ruining the credibility and reputation of our courts, not for a messy pot of pottage or love of lucre.

“There are great judges in Nigeria, but the unchecked excesses of some who allow themselves to become judicial swords in the hands of politicians are capable of damaging the larger image of the judiciary,” he added.

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Lagos to Probe Alakija Building Collapse, Prosecute Culprits

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By Adedapo Adesanya

The Lagos State Government has said it will investigate the collapse of a three-storey building in the Alakija area of the state and prosecute anyone found culpable, while warning residents against ignoring evacuation notices issued on distressed structures.

The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Gbenga Omotoso, gave the warning on Friday while commiserating with the families of the victims, describing the incident as unfortunate.

“Our first duty is to commiserate with the families who lost their loved ones in this unfortunate incident. On behalf of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, we sympathise with them and pray that such a tragedy never occurs again,” he said.

Latest update from the state government put the casualty figures at 27 rescued and nine fatalities, including a baby.

He disclosed that 27 persons were rescued alive from the rubble, while nine others lost their lives despite overnight rescue efforts.

“By the grace of God, we have been able to rescue 27 people. Unfortunately, we lost nine persons and this is very sad. We share the pain of the affected families,” he said.

According to the commissioner, the collapsed building had earlier been identified as distressed and marked for evacuation, but some occupants allegedly returned after initially leaving.

“As you can see, these buildings had been marked as distressed and people were asked to leave. Unfortunately, some residents returned after pretending to have moved out, leading to this tragic outcome,” Mr Omotoso said.

He added that other distressed buildings in the area would be demolished to prevent similar incidents.

“All the buildings that have been identified as defective will go down. We cannot wait until another tragedy occurs before taking action. The protection of lives remains our priority,” he said.

Mr Omotoso also condemned the construction and occupation of buildings beneath high-tension power lines, describing the practice as unsafe and unacceptable.

“It is not done in any civilised society. Such developments show disregard for safety regulations and contempt for the law. Government will continue to clamp down on such violations,” he said.

He assured residents that a full investigation into the collapse had commenced, stressing that anyone found responsible would face prosecution.

“The owners of the building are under investigation. Anybody found complicit in this tragedy will face the law. They will be prosecuted because no one is above the law,” he said.

The commissioner said most of the rescued victims sustained no life-threatening injuries, while those requiring further medical attention had been taken to the hospital.

He also praised the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, the police, the military, neighbourhood safety personnel and other emergency responders for their swift response.

“I must commend all our emergency responders who worked tirelessly throughout the night to save lives and bring the situation under control,” he said.

Mr Omotoso urged residents to prioritise safety over economic considerations.

“The most important lesson from this incident is that nobody should prioritise livelihood over life. Once life is lost, everything is lost. No business is worth risking human lives for,” he added.

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