NDLEA arrests Lagos pastor over 900kg cannabis shipments from Ghana

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested the founder and general overseer of a church in Lagos State, Adefolusho Olasele, also known as Abbas Ajakaiye, over his alleged role in multiple shipments of illicit drugs from Ghana to Nigeria.

Femi Babafemi, NDLEA spokesperson, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, saying Olasele had been on the run for months.

The suspect was apprehended on Sunday, August 3, 2025, at his church in the Okun Ajah area of Lekki, Lagos. Babafemi said operatives waited until the end of the Sunday service before arresting him as he stepped out of the premises.

According to the NDLEA, the pastor fled to Ghana in June to evade arrest after operatives linked him to two cannabis seizures.

These included 200kg recovered at Okun Ajah Beach on June 4 and 700kg found in his delivery van on July 6.

“After months of fleeing abroad to evade arrest, the Founder and General Overseer of The Turn of Mercy Church, Prophet Adefolusho Aanu Olasele (alias Abbas Ajakaiye) has been 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 NDLEA officers who had been waiting 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 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,” the statement read.