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. Arrests cross-border kingpin; recovers cocaine, heroin from iron safe seized at Rivers drug den

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted consignments of captagon, widely known as ‘Jihadi drug’ and millions of opioid pills worth over N6.2 billion at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja Lagos.

The captagon shipment was seized at the Lagos airport on Saturday 22nd August 2026 following the arrest of a 49-year-old cross-border kingpin Akinbile Kazeem Aikins, who arrived from Accra Ghana aboard an African World Airlines flight.

A search of his carton of local bathing soap, popularly called “Ghana Soap,” led to the recovery of 47,200 pills of the illicit amphetamine drug worth over N1.5 billion concealed within blocks of soap. Captagon, which is notoriously dubbed the ‘Jihadi drug’ for its use in funding extremist activities in conflict zones, was first intercepted in Nigeria by NDLEA in September 2021 at the Apapa port in Lagos. After his arrest, Akinbile claimed he was meant to deliver the consignment in the North.

In another successful interdiction operation at the Lagos airport, no fewer than 3,900,030 tablets of Tramaking 225mg and Tapentadol 250mg, with a combined gross weight of 2,787.40 kilograms and more than N4.6 billion in street value, were recovered from four abandoned consignments at the import shed of the MMIA. Three of the consignments, comprising 900,000 tablets of Tramaking (815.40kg), arrived aboard RwandAir flights from Bangladesh, while a fourth, comprising 3,000,030 tablets of Tapentadol (1,972kg), arrived on Qatar Airways from Amsterdam.

The shipments, which had been placed under close watch after no one showed up to claim them, were formally retrieved after a joint examination by NDLEA officers, Customs and other stakeholders on Friday 28th August.
A 31-year-old US-returnee, Sowunmi David Oludotun was on 19th August arrested by NDLEA operatives at Ikate area of Lekki after he showed up to take delivery of 3.350 kilograms of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis imported from the United Kingdom.

Fireproof safe cracked open in Rivers drug den raid In Rivers state, NDLEA operatives have raided the notorious Abuja Down/Up area of Port Harcourt where they recovered a fireproof iron safe among other items. When the safe was cracked open with a welding machine on Tuesday 25th August, 237 grams of colorado; 316 grams of cocaine, and 10 grams of heroin were recovered from it.

Three suspects: Oyedele Daniel, 42; Taye Saliu, 36; and Kehinde Saliu, 36, were on Friday 28th August nabbed at Ipele-Idoani road, in Ondo state with a total of 728kg skunk recovered from their truck marked KRE 120 XB. Two other suspects: Uche Joseph, 35, and Godwin Umeh, 21, were arrested at Aponmu forest with 341kg of same substance on Wednesday 26th August.

In Delta state, over 176,000 pills of assorted opioids including tramadol, molly and others were recovered from two interdiction operations in parts of the state between Wednesday 26th and Friday 28th August.
With the same vigour, Commands and formations of the Agency across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization activities to schools, worship centres, work places and communities among others in the past week. These include: WADA enlightenment lecture to students and staff of Markaz Littahfizul Quran Wal Islamiyyat, Dadin Kowa, Gombe; Zangina Islamiyyah Alasawa Kurna, Ungogo LGA, Kano; youths at the adolescent lifestyle programme organised by NNPCL in Benin city, Edo state; while the Ondo State Command of NDLEA paid a WADA advocacy visit to the State Governor, Dr. Lucky Aiyedatiwa, with the Taraba state command of the Agency paying a similar advocacy visit to the State Governor, Dr. Agbu Kefas, among others.

While commending the officers and men of MMIA, Ondo, and Delta Commands for the various successful operations, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd) enjoined them and their colleagues across the country to continue with the ongoing balanced approach to the drug control efforts of the Agency.
He also directed them to sustain the momentum against drug traffickers who are desperate to explore every means, including concealment in everyday household items like soap, to move their illicit consignments.

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The Federal Government has approved N10bn for the 2026 National Research Fund Grant Cycle of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund.

TETFund, in a call for concept notes, said the grant would support research projects across 30 priority thematic areas under Humanities and Social Sciences; Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation; and Cross-Cutting.

The fund said the 2026 grant cycle followed the successful completion of the 2025 cycle, which resulted in the award of a little over N6.09bn to support 174 research projects.

According to TETFund, accessing the 2026 NRF grant will begin with the submission of concept notes by Principal Investigators of proposed research projects.

Only Principal Investigators whose concept notes are evaluated and considered fundable will be invited to submit full proposals.

Who can apply?

TETFund said lecturers in public tertiary institutions in Nigeria are eligible to apply for the grant.

Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Terrestrial Ecosystems
Transport and Infrastructure
Water and Sanitation

Cross-Cutting

Blue Economy
Clean and Affordable Energy
Entrepreneurship and Wealth Creation
Environment, Housing, Urban and Regional Development
Innovation and Technology in National Defence Capabilities
Resource Governance
National System of Innovation

The call was signed by the TETFund Executive Secretary, Arc. Sonny S. T. Echono, PhD, FNIA, OON.

For enquiries, applicants can contact the TETFund NRF Secretariat through [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].

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Austrian police are searching for two men who allegedly stole a 200-carat platinum necklace encrusted with 673 diamonds from a museum in Vienna.

The necklace, which was on loan to the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), reportedly once belonged to Queen Nazli of Egypt. Police released images of the suspects captured by security cameras during the theft and appealed to members of the public for information that could help identify or locate them.

The two men reportedly entered the museum after buying tickets to the exhibition. During opening hours on Thursday afternoon, they allegedly smashed a glass display case with a hammer before taking the necklace and fleeing the scene. In an appeal for information, police said: “The perpetrators fled with the jewellery in an unknown direction.”

Officers searched parts of central Vienna and deployed a police tracking dog as they attempted to trace the suspects. Austrian newspaper Kronen reported that investigators believe the theft may have been carried out as a “contract job” for a criminal gang.

The stolen necklace was part of an exhibition that had been on display at the MAK since June. The exhibition featured more than 300 works associated with French luxury jewellery house Van Cleef & Arpels. No one was injured during the incident, although several visitors were reportedly present in the exhibition room when the theft occurred.

Museum documentation states that the necklace once belonged to Queen Consort Nazli of Egypt.

She reportedly wore the piece during the 1939 wedding of her daughter, Princess Fawzia, to Iran’s then Crown Prince Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who later became shah. The necklace was sold by Sotheby’s in New York in 2015 for $4.3 million.

The MAK said the exhibition brought together about 200 “unique and rarely seen objects” from its own collection and pieces from the heritage collection of Van Cleef & Arpels, covering about 120 years of the jewellery house’s history.

Following the theft, a guided tour scheduled for Friday afternoon was cancelled, while the exhibition was temporarily closed.

The exhibition had been scheduled to run until September 27. The theft comes amid a series of high-profile robberies targeting European museums and cultural institutions.

In Spain on Thursday, thieves reportedly raided the Treasure of Villena, a collection of Bronze Age gold artefacts regarded as one of Europe’s most important prehistoric hoards.

Earlier this month, four significant works by 15th-century Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina were stolen from a museum in the Sicilian city of Messina.

Italian police also recently recovered three paintings by Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri Matisse that had been stolen from a private museum near Parma. A recent Europol report warned that museum robberies in Europe are becoming increasingly violent, with criminals using weapons and heavy tools, including sledgehammers, axes and explosives, to target valuable cultural objects.