A sixty- five -years old woman, Mrs Agnes Ezekiel, (real name withheld) has revealed how she paid N1.5million to officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency ( NDLEA) Edo State Command before she was released from detention after spending three weeks.
Ezekiel was arrested alongside deceased Titilayo Akindele in Ogida Quarters, Benin City, Edo State for allegedly being in possession of substances suspected to be cannabis .
The revelation followed the death of Akindele, while waiting for arraignment at the Federal High Court sitting in Benin.City on March 31, 2026.
She said: “When they arrested me, I was not with anything, but they used another person’s market to take me pictures.
“I saw some people pay N 8 million naira for bail, others pay 7 million, 5 million, myself I paid 1.5 million naira to come out from their detention. There was a girl ,we met there whether she has been bailed , or not I don’t know, but she was there for 6 months, a very small girl, they said, they saw Igbo with her.”
Collaborating the claims by Mrs Agnes Ezekiel, husband to the deceased Titilayo , Mr Adebayo Bashiru said he went to the office of the agency with his son, Samuel to negotiate for his late wife’s bail, but they demand 5 million naira from them. He said they were able to get N500,000 , but they rejected it.
“The people who arrested her asked us to go and bring N2 million . So, when we could not get the money, they transferred her to NDLEA.
“The NDLEA people did not say anything in time. So , when the NDLEA people began to talk , they said we should go and bring N5 million , that was when we slacked, because we don’t have that money.
“After running around we could only get N500,000 ( five hundred thousand naira). We got there, they were harassing us, after a time ,
one of them said I should talk to his oga. So, we met a man, in a bigger office, so the man said that they have not seen the report of the officer that arrested her that they are waiting for the officer . Then , the oga said that if the money is not up to N3 million naira, we should forgot it.”
Reacting, a human rights lawyer , Douglas Ogbankwa condemned the abuse and human rights violation by security operatives , he frowned at persistent impunity, unlawful detention practices allegedly perpetrated by officials of the NDLEA across Nigeria.
He said NDLEA facilities have “in many instances, become zones of prolonged and unlawful incarceration — where citizens are held for months without trial, without due process, and blatant disregard for constitutional provisions.”
He called for an independent and transparent investigation into Akindele’s death; suspension and removal of NDLEA officials directly involved; removal of the State Commander and overhaul of the command structure; intervention by the Attorney General of the Federation; and oversight mechanisms to monitor detention conditions.
The Commander NDLEA, Edo State Command, Mitchell Ofoyeju, did not pick several calls put to his mobile phone, nor respond to text messages.
