Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have re-arrested a notorious major distributor of illicit substances within the FCT, Abuja, Ibrahim Momoh, popularly known as Ibrahim Bendel seven years after he escaped from prison custody following his conviction for drug dealing.
Momoh was re-arrested during a raid of his hideout at Filin Dabo, Dei-Dei area of the FCT.
He 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 22nd July 2015. But while serving his jail term at Kuje, he escaped from prison custody on May 16, 2016.
NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, said in a statement on Sunday that following credible intelligence, the Agency’s operatives on November 20, 2022 stormed the warehouse of the fleeing ex-convict 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 manhunt for the drug lord paid off on 5 November 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 13th November, a suspect Yusufa Ibrahim, 27, was arrested with 75.3kgs of cannabis.”