A FEDERAL High Court in Lagos have sentenced two notorious drug kingpins, Ajetsibo Emami, 37, popularly known as Warri Kinsman, and Solomon Akpomuai, 51, to a combined 10 years imprisonment.
The court, however, gave them a N50 million option each that would make them escape jail.
According to a statement by the spokesperson of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, on Tuesday, Emami was arrested in Ikeja, Lagos, on Saturday, June 28, 2025, after NDLEA operatives dismantled his drug trafficking network in a three-day operation.
The agency said three other suspects were arrested during the operation and operatives recovered 24 jumbo bags containing 681 pouches of Canadian loud, a strain of cannabis weighing 414.2 kilogrammes from Emami’s network.
The NDLEA said the bust of Emami’s drug ring followed credible intelligence on his attempt to move the shipment to the Lekki area of Lagos State, from where it would be distributed to other parts of the state and across the country.
He was subsequently arraigned before trial judge, Deinde Dipeolu, of the Federal High Court 8, Lagos, in charge number FHC/L/636C/2025 bordering on dealing in illicit drugs.
In his ruling delivered on Monday, August 18, 2025, the judge, Dipeolu, convicted Emami on the one-count charge filed against him by the NDLEA prosecutor and Assistant Commander of Narcotics, Buhari Shuaibu Abdullah.
He was thereafter sentenced to six years in prison with an option of N50 million instead of jail.
In a similar development, according to the NDLEA, the other convict, Akpomuai, was first arrested by men of the Nigeria Customs Service along Shagamu-Ijebu-Ode expressway with 2,197.8 kilogrammes of skunk, a strain of cannabis, on June 3, 2025. He was transferred to the NDLEA on June 16.
He was arraigned in charge number FHC/L/635C before judge Dipeolu for trafficking illicit drugs in large commercial quantities.
In his judgement on the matter, the trial judge convicted and sentenced Akpomuai to four years in prison with an option of a N50 million fine.
Commenting on the convictions, the Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Mohamed Buba Marwa, described the conviction of the two drug kingpins as an indication that Nigeria would sooner than later surmount the menace of substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking as a result of the positive outcomes of the current balanced approach to the agency’s drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts.
He commended the judiciary, NDLEA officers involved in the investigation and prosecution of the cases, as well as other stakeholders, for their commitment to the cause of a drug-free Nigeria.
The ICIR reported that on Wednesday, August 13, 2025, Marwa said the agency arrested 40,887 drug offenders and 45 barons in the past two years.
Besides, the agency seized 5.5 million kilogrammes of illicit substances within the same period.
Marwa stated this in his opening remarks at the commissioning of 46 new vehicles distributed to strategic commands and formations of the NDLEA at the agency’s national headquarters in Abuja, on Wednesday, August 13.
He said 704.445 hectares of cannabis farms, hidden deep in forests, were also destroyed by the agency, adding that the NDLEA had equally secured the conviction of 8,682 traffickers and kingpins, and ensured their assets were forfeited to the Federal Government.
Marwa explained that 24,173 drug users were treated and rehabilitated in its 30 rehab centres across the country during the period.
A reporter with the ICIR
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