By Oluwatosin Maliki
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have announced the arrest of a drug lord identified as Ibrahim Momoh, also known as Ibrahim Bendel, seven years after his jailbreak.
Momoh was apprehended during a raid at his hideout located at Filin Dabo, Dei-Dei area of the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja). This information was disclosed in a statement issued by the Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, and shared on their official Facebook page on Sunday.
Quest Times gathered that security operatives had been in search of the suspect after his escape from prison.
The anti-narcotic agency noted that the suspect is a major distributor of illicit substances within the FCT, adding that he was initially arrested on November 27, 2014, with 385.1 kilograms of cannabis sativa.
Consequently, he was convicted and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on July 22, 2015. However, he eventually escaped Kuje prison on May 16, 2016, while serving his sentence.
The statement partly read, “Seven years after he escaped from prison custody following his conviction for drug dealing, a notorious major distributor of illicit substances within the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Ibrahim Momoh, popularly known as Ibrahim Bendel, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, during a raid of his hideout at Filin Dabo, Dei-Dei area of the FCT.”
“Ibrahim Momoh was first arrested on November 27, 2014, with cannabis sativa weighing 385.1kgs, prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on July 22, 2015. But while serving his jail term at Kuje, he escaped from prison custody on 16th May 2016,” the statement added.
After several attempts to arrest the drug lord, the police were able to receive credible intelligence. Hence, NDLEA operatives on November 20, 2022, stormed the warehouse of the fleeing ex-convict, Ibrahim Momoh, and recovered 81 jumbo bags of cannabis weighing 1,278kgs. The store was located within his poultry farm in the Dei-Dei area of the FCT.
“Though Momoh was not around at the time, his warehouse manager, 55-year-old Ghanaian Richard Forson Gordon, was arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced to two years in jail. The Agency, after that, declared Ibrahim Momoh wanted.”
The police finally secured his arrest, stating, “The manhunt for the drug lord paid off on November 5, 2023, when operatives again raided his hideout at Filin Dabo, Dei-Dei area of Abuja, where he was arrested with 56.9kgs of cannabis sativa and 42.7 grams of Diazepam. In another raid in the same area of the FCT on Monday, November 13, a suspect, Yusufa Ibrahim, 27, was arrested with 75.3kgs of cannabis.”