The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has arrested the founder and General Overseer of The Turn of Mercy Church, Adefolusho Olasele, also known as Abbas Ajakaiye, over his suspected complicity in repeated shipments of illicit substances from Ghana to Nigeria.
After months of evasion, Olasele was finally caught on Sunday, August 3, 2025, at his church in Okun Ajah, Lekki, Lagos.
Femi Babafemi, the agency’s spokesperson, said in a statement on Sunday that officers arrested him as he left the building after waiting until the conclusion of the Sunday service.
He claims that when authorities connected the pastor to two cannabis seizures—200 kg found at Okun Ajah Beach on June 4 and 700 kg discovered in his delivery vehicle on July 6—he fled to Ghana in June to avoid being arrested.
“The founder and general overseer of The Turn of Mercy Church, Prophet Adefolusho Aanu Olasele (also known as Abbas Ajakaiye), was caught for orchestrating several cocaine shipments into Nigeria after months of escaping overseas to avoid capture.
On Sunday, August 3, 2025, Prophet Adefolusho was taken into custody at his church in Okun Ajah, Ogombo Road, Lekki, Lagos. NDLEA officers had been waiting for him since the morning to finish the Sunday worship service in the evening, and they moved in on him as soon as he left the church grounds.
Following the confiscation of two shipments of Ghana Loud, a cannabis strain connected to him, in June, he traveled to Ghana to hide and elude arrest twice before being apprehended. On June 4, 2025, 200 kg of the psychoactive substance was initially seized at Okun Ajah beach, and on July 6, 2025, another shipment containing 700 kg of the same material was found in his delivery van, according to the statement.
According to Babafemi’s allegation, the pastor admitted to transporting the shipments from Ghana by waterways.
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, August 7, Babafemi said NDLEA operatives raided an apartment at Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, where they arrested Benjamin Ukoh and recovered 32 pouches of Canadian Loud, weighing 15.63kg.
“In Nasarawa State, 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 New Karu area of the state.
“On Friday, August 8, 29-year-old Nura Yahaya was apprehended in the Geza area of Kumbotso, Kano State, with 639 blocks of skunk weighing 359 kg. On Wednesday, August 6, NDLEA officers arrested another suspect, Umar Adamu Umar, 27, after they confiscated 9 kg of Colorado, a synthetic strain of cannabis, from him along Zaria-Kano road, Kano,” the statement continued.
According to Babafemi, Usama Isah was arrested and 550,266 opioid pills were found during a raid on an unfinished structure in Tudun Wadan Pantami, Gombe State, on Friday, August 8.
“On Saturday, August 9, NDLEA officers arrested Ibrahim Adamu, a 23-year-old suspect, along Potiskum Road in Bajoga with 50,000 tramadol capsules,” he continued.
On Wednesday, August 6, a Toyota Hiace bus carrying 400 pentazocine ampoules, 1,100 pills, and 23,940 tramadol capsules was stopped at Ewu junction in Edo State when it was traveling from Onitsha to Isanlu, Kogi. Taiye Jethro, the driver, was taken into custody.
Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (retd), the chairman of the NDLEA, commended the officers engaged and advised staff members across the country to continue to handle drug control operations with a balanced approach.
