The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has arrested the founder and General Overseer of The Turn of Mercy Church, Prophet Adefolusho Olasele, also known as Abbas Ajakaiye, over his alleged role in multiple shipments of illicit drugs from Ghana to Nigeria.
Olasele, who had been on the run for months, was apprehended on Sunday, August 3, 2025, at his church in Okun Ajah, Lekki, Lagos.
A statement on Sunday by the agency’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi, said operatives waited until the end of the Sunday Service before arresting him as he stepped out of the premises.
According to him, the pastor fled to Ghana in June to evade arrest after operatives linked him to two cannabis seizures — 200kg recovered at the Okun Ajah beach on June 4 and 700kg found in his delivery van on July 6.
After months of fleeing abroad to evade arrest, Olasele (alias Abbas Ajakaiye) was arrested for masterminding multiple shipments of illicit drugs into Nigeria.
“Prophet Adefolusho was arrested at his church located in Okun Ajah, Ogombo Road, Lekki area of Lagos on Sunday, August 3, 2025, by the NDLEA officers who waited for him since morning to conclude the Sunday worship service in the evening before moving in on him the moment he stepped out of the church premises.
“The arrest came after he had evaded arrest twice and fled to Ghana to hide since June when operatives started 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 the Okun Ajah beach on June 4, 2025, while another consignment of 700kg of the same substance was recovered from his delivery van on July 6, 2025.”
In his statement, Babafemi claimed the pastor confessed to ferrying the consignments via waterways from Ghana.
He said, “In his statement, he admitted 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 a separate operation in Lagos on Thursday, Babafemi also stated that the NDLEA operatives raided an apartment at the Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, where they arrested Benjamin Ukoh and recovered 32 pouches of Canadian Loud, weighing 15.63kg.
“In Nasarawa State, the NDLEA operatives on Saturday, August 9, 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 the 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, August 8, another suspect Umar Adamu Umar, 27, was taken into custody on Wednesday, August 6, by the NDLEA officers after seizing 9kg of Colorado, a synthetic strain of cannabis from him along Zaria-Kano Road, Kano,” the statement added.
In Gombe State, Babafemi stated that a raid on an uncompleted building in Tudun Wadan Pantami on Friday led to the recovery of 550,266 opioid pills and the arrest of Usama Isah.
“The following day, Saturday, August 9, another suspect, Ibrahim Adamu, 23, was arrested by the NDLEA officers along Potiskum Road, Bajoga, with 50,000 capsules of tramadol”, he added.
In Edo State, a Toyota Hiace bus travelling from Onitsha to Isanlu, Kogi State, was intercepted at the Ewu junction on Wednesday, with 23,940 tramadol capsules, 1,100 tablets, and 400 pentazocine ampoules. The driver, Taiye Jethro, was arrested.
Commending the officers involved, the NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (retd.), urged personnel nationwide to maintain a balanced approach to drug control operations.
PUNCH.
