Hope Ikorodu ₦194 billion cocaine wasn’t planned to finance 2023 election, says Reno Omokri

A former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri has expressed doubts over the ₦194 billion cocaine seized by officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA in Ikorodu area of Lagos state.

Omokri, in a statement via his verified Twitter handle, said he hoped that the cocaine was not a plan by a certain person to finance his 2023 election.

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His tweet reads, “I seriously hope a certain person was not planning to use the Ikorodu ₦193 billion cocaine that was seized by the NDLEA to finance his 2023 election. Because such a quantum of drugs in a warehouse is mind boggling! ₦193 billion is higher than some state’s budgets.”

Recall that operatives of the NDLEA busted a major warehouse in a secluded estate in the Ikorodu on Monday, where 1.8 tons (1,855 kilograms) of cocaine were stored.

The cocaine seized from the warehouse is worth more than Two Hundred and Seventy-Eight Million Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars ($278, 250,000) equivalent to about One Hundred and Ninety Four Billion, Seven Hundred and Seventy-Five Million (N194, 775,000,000) Naira in street value.

Four drug barons including a Jamaican and the warehouse manager have been arrested.

The kingpins of the cocaine cartel in custody include Messrs Soji Jibril, 69, an indigene of Ibadan, Oyo state; Emmanuel Chukwu, 65, who hails from Ekwulobia, Anambra state; Wasiu Akinade, 53, from Ibadan, Oyo state; Sunday Oguntelure, 53, from Okitipupa, Ondo state and Kelvin Smith, 42, a native of Kingston, Jamaica.

They are all members of an international drug syndicate that the NDLEA has been trailing since 2018.

Giving further details on the incident, Femi Babafemi, the Director of Media for NDLEA told PM News that the warehouse is located at 6 Olukuola crescent, Solebo estate, Ikorodu.

Babafemi confirmed that the warehouse was raided on Sunday 18th September 2022, while the barons were picked from hotels and their hideouts in different parts of Lagos between Sunday night and Monday 19th September.

He said: “Preliminary investigation reveals that class A drugs were warehoused in the residential estate from where the cartel was trying to sell them to buyers in Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world.

“They were stored in 10 travel bags and 13 drums.”