Ilomuanya was apprehended in Lagos on Monday, February 23, 2026, following what the agency described as a high-level, coordinated operation by officers of its Special Operations Unit.

The development was disclosed in a statement issued on Wednesday by the Director of Media and Advocacy of the agency, Femi Babafemi.

Babafemi said the suspect’s arrest ended a prolonged manhunt linked to his alleged involvement in drug trafficking activities across Nigeria and the United Kingdom.

According to the statement, Ilomuanya was first arrested in February 2003 in the United Kingdom and convicted for drug trafficking.

He was sentenced to nine years imprisonment but was released after serving two years following a successful appeal.

Babafemi added that the suspect was again arrested in the UK in July 2011 over drug-related offences.

He said, “He was granted administrative bail but jumped jurisdiction and fled to Nigeria.

“Typical of a recidivist, Ilomuanya was in November 2018 arrested in Nigeria by NDLEA operatives following the discovery of two clandestine methamphetamine laboratories in his Obinugwu, Orlu Local Government Area country home in Imo State and at his No. 3 Barrister Declan Uzoma Close, Lagos residence where officers recovered 77.960 kilograms of methamphetamine and extensive production equipment.

“He was subsequently charged before a Federal High Court in Lagos, after which he jumped court bail and has been on the run since then.”

Reacting to the development, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), described the arrest as a major breakthrough in the agency’s ongoing war against drug trafficking networks.

Marwa said the operation demonstrated the agency’s resolve to track down criminal elements regardless of how long they evade the law.

He said, “This arrest serves as a stern warning to those who think they can hide behind borders to escape justice.

“Whether you jump bail in London or set up clandestine labs in your village, the long arm of the NDLEA will eventually catch up with those who choose to undermine the health, security, and future of our nation.

“We remain committed to our international collaborations to ensure that Nigeria is not used as a sanctuary for global drug lords.”

Marwa also commended officers of the Special Operations Unit for their professionalism and persistence in tracking down the suspect.

He added that the agency would continue to strengthen intelligence-driven operations and international cooperation to dismantle drug trafficking networks operating within and beyond Nigeria.

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The Metropolitan Police have confirmed that eight people were stabbed and hundreds were arrested during last weekend’s Notting Hill Carnival, one of the world’s largest street festivals, held annually in west London.

In an update on their policing operation late Monday, the Met reported that five people were stabbed on the final day of the three-day celebration, which is internationally renowned for its vibrant display of British Afro-Caribbean culture.

This followed three other stabbings on Sunday. Three of the victims were left in life-threatening conditions.

Police made at least 230 arrests on Monday alone, including 49 for possession of an offensive weapon.

These arrests added to the scores of others made earlier in the weekend. In addition to the arrests, three firearms were seized, and 35 officers sustained injuries during the event, which attracts around a million attendees every August bank holiday weekend.

The number of arrests and incidents this year closely mirrors last year’s figures when there were 10 stabbings and approximately 300 arrests.

Despite the heavy police presence, with around 7,000 officers deployed, the carnival was once again marred by violence, particularly knife crime. Nevertheless, the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of revellers enjoyed the event without incident, filling the streets of Notting Hill with colour, music, and dancing.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Ade Adelekan expressed his frustration over the recurring violence, noting that a woman attending the carnival with her child was among those stabbed.

“We only very narrowly avoided a fatality,” he said, urging attendees to report any crimes they witness.

The Notting Hill Carnival, a celebration of British Afro-Caribbean culture, has its roots in the 1950s, following the post-World War II influx of immigrants from former British colonies.

The annual event is known for its feathered dancers, steel bands, and earth-shaking sound systems, symbolizing the rich cultural heritage of the Afro-Caribbean community in the UK.

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They found that more than 27,300 Russian soldiers died during the second year of the war, a 25-percent increase on the first year.

BBC Russian, Mediazona and volunteers have been counting deaths since February 2022, using open-source information from official reports and the media, as well as using satellite images of Russian cemeteries to estimate the number of new graves.

The figure of more than 50,000 is eight times higher than the official toll acknowledged by Moscow in September 2022. It does not include deaths of militia in Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine said in February that it had lost 31,000 soldiers, but that figure is also likely to be significantly lower than the true toll.

Russian losses spiked in January 2023 as it launched a large-scale offensive in Donetsk and again months later last year during the battle for the city of Bakhmut.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” at dawn on February 24, 2022, which has since turned into a bloody and attritional war, isolating Russia from the Western world.

Responding to the report, the Kremlin said it did not disclose any information on military deaths and casualties, which falls under the remit of the defence ministry.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added official secrets laws and those covering what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine meant it was “absolutely understandable” that the ministry did not release the figures.

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Nigerian government has received the  £4.2million seized from the associates of convicted former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori from the United Kingdom.

The Minister of Justice and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar made this known on Tuesday via a statement issued by his spokesman, Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria has received GBP 4,214,017.66 of the loot associated with the family members of former Delta State Governor, James Ibori.

“The amount has been credited into the designated Federal Government account with naira equivalent value of the amount as of 10th May 2021”, he confirmed.

Malami was said to have signed the Memorandum of Understanding for the repatriation of the Ibori loot on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

The Minister noted that the development was a demonstration of the recognition of reputation Nigeria earns through records of management of recovered stolen Nigerian stolen in the execution of public-oriented projects.

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Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari will on Tuesday proceed to London, the United Kingdom for a routine medical check-up.

This was announced in a statement issued on Monday night by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina.

According to the statement, before departing the country for the UK, President Buhari is billed to meet with the security chiefs in the morning.

He is expected back in Nigeria during the second week of April 2021.

President Buhari had embarked on several medical trips between 2015 and 2019. During one of his trips in 2017, he spent 103 days in London with the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, acting as the president then.

His long absence sparked rumours that he had passed on – speculations which were denied by the presidency.

Buhari’s health became a subject of debate in the last election in February 2020 when the opposition claimed he was not physically fit to govern — but Buhari won a second term.

The president’s state of health became a sensitive subject in Nigeria after former leader Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, died in 2010 and it emerged that his ailment had been kept secret for months.

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The ancient University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom has said it will return a Benin Bronze to Nigeria, many years after the British looted the sculptures. 

University of Aberdeen, In a statement on Thursday, explained it has previously repatriated sacred items and ancestral remains to Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

“An ongoing review of the collections identified the Head of an Oba as having been acquired in a way that we now consider to have been extremely immoral, so we took a proactive approach to identify the appropriate people to discuss what to do,” the school said as it became the first institution to agree to the full repatriation from a museum of a Benin bronze.

The bronze sculpture showing an Oba (king) of Benin was acquired by the University in 1957 at an auction and is believed to be a great example of Benin Late Period Art

“It would not have been right to have retained an item of such great cultural importance that was acquired in such reprehensible circumstances,” the university stressed.

“We, therefore, decided that an unconditional return is the most appropriate action we can take, and are grateful for the close collaboration with our partners”, the statement concluded.

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The heist of the late General Sani Abacha, stashed away in different countries of the world, that are coming in droves back to the country, is my subject.

This was a heist which the self-same Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, had persistently denied as non-existent, literally beatifying his late benefactor, Sani Abacha, as above board.

Excluding tranches of the loot recently returned to Nigeria, the countryside’s has, in the past 18 years, recovered $4.6 billion (1.4trn) of her treasury looted by Abacha. While the United States Embassy in Nigeria recently announced the sum of $319m (N121bn) loot repatriated from the United Kingdom and France and handed back to Nigeria, this repatriated fund was different from one of about a week ago where the sum of $311 million Abacha loot from the US and the Bailiwick of Jersey were also funneled back into the country.

In a statement last week, the embassy said: “The funds returned last week are distinct and separate from an additional $167m in stolen assets also forfeited in the United Kingdom and France, as well as $152m still in active litigation in the United Kingdom.”

At every point of the looted funds’ repatriation to Nigeria, these countries where the looted funds were earlier domiciled diplomatically but unambiguously made it known that they do not trust Nigerian leaders not to re-loot the looted funds. In fact, their trenchant shouts while returning the funds are revelatory of their disposition.

The one of February, 2020 even came with the caveat and a tripartite agreement signed by Nigeria with the US government and the Bailiwick of Jersey that upon the return of the money, it would be spent on specific infrastructure projects, to wit the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Second Niger Bridge and the Abuja-Kano Expressway.

 At another point, there were frenetic moves by the US and United Kingdom governments against the plan of the Nigerian government to gift Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, Kebbi State governor, who was alleged to be an enabler and accomplice of the laundered money, the sum of $110 million out of the recovered funds.

Recently too, a warning came from the United States Justice Department that, should Nigeria fail to spend the repatriated funds on the agreed public projects, she would refund the money.

I don’t know if you know that these veiled threats didn’t come without an underlining perception or intelligence reports about our government’s disposition to public funds in its care. Nigerian governments, the so-called Mai Gaskiya’s inclusive, are known to the globe to be rapaciously corrupt, adding to this corruption medal another medallion of shamelessness. The way the globe polices monies that are Nigeria’s but stolen by a Nigerian despot of incomparable filching mentality, is embarrassingly unprecedented. Can Mai Gaskiya see his world in the open is the most fitting epithet to describe this shamelessness

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The Minister, as learnt is expected to explain to the Senate, what the Federal Government’s team is doing to resolve the matter.

Malami is billed to appear before the Senate committees on Judiciary, Petroleum Upstream and Gas.

A Federal Government had on Monday sent a delegation led by the Attorney-General of the Federation Abubakar Malami, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN,  Godwin Emefiele, to the United Kingdom to meet with some international media over the $9.6 billion cases involving the Process and Industrial Development Limited (P&ID).

The meeting follows the award of the fine of $9.6 billion against Nigeria by a British Court following a botched oil deal with the company.

Others members of the delegation include the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed; the Inspector General of Police, Abubakar Adamu; AIG Ibrahim Lamorde and the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Magu.

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Royal African Young Emerging Entrepreneurship Summit (RAYEES), an initiative of the Arole Oodua and Ooni of Ife, Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II has be endorsed by the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Her Exellency, Ms. Catriona Laing, describing the initiative as a multiplicity for digital transformation, modern creative incubation, ideas and innovation and new wealth creation ecosystem that should be commended as a pragmatic approach to socioeconomic development for millions of youths across the continent. 

The High Commissioner gave the endorsement last week at her residence in Abuja, the nation’s capital during a meeting with a royal delegation from the Monarch led by the Director of Media and Public Affairs, Ooni’s Palace, Comrade Moses Olafare in respect of the maiden edition of the Royal African Young Emerging Entrepreneurs (RAYEES) slated for November 2019 at the Henley Business School, University of Reading, United Kingdom.

“I must commend His Imperial Majesty’s broad vision of enriching the lives of young ambitious and fantastic Africans youths through enterprises. This initiative is well structured to propel young Africans to redesign models of human capacities development, serve as an optimal infrastructure, transformative force, shaping business framework, socio economic prosperity and injecting a new leadership system that are compatible with the 21st century advancement”

“I enjoyed the overall reception and strategic conversation that I had with Ooni of Ife during my official courtesy visit to the Royal Court of the Kingdom of Ife and I would like to commend the King for the choice of Henley Business School as a nurturing mechanism and training framework for these young emerging entrepreneurs’ in the UK. I’m keen to exploring synergies that would advance productive and sustainable implementation of this outstanding initiative”

Ooni’s Director of Media and Public Affairs, Moses Olafare had earlier introduced Mr. Olamide Awosunle, Special Assistant to Ooni of Ife on Youth Development and Wealth Creation and London based Dr. Ayobami Oyedare, the CEO of Ooni of Ife Global Outreach (OIGO) as members of the royal team.

Olafare reinforced the vision of Ooni of Ife towards the actualization of creative entrepreneurship that can lead to economic prosperity and serve as contemporary life-tube for job creations and swift wealth sharing for millions.

Also speaking, Dr Ayobami explained that the endorsement and support of the other partners will catalyze new leadership system that will be compatible with the 21st century advancement.

“With exceptional partnership from Oracle UK, InterTalent UK, Parsons School of Design in New York City (NYC), Semicolon, Afrinolly and endorsement from British High Commission, National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Small and Medium Enterprises Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), the initiative will tremendously propel young Africans to redesign models of human capacities development, serve as an optimal infrastructure, transformative force, shaping business framework, socio economic prosperity and injecting a new leadership system that are compatible with the 21st century advancement”.

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Governor Makinde, who made the declaration while speaking at the inauguration of the South West Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the United Kingdom, said that he was aware why there has been so much searchlight on his person and his administration.

A statement by Governor Makinde’s Chief Press Secretary, Taiwo Adisa, also quoted the Governor as tasking PDP Stakeholders to readily project the good deeds of the party’s office holders in order not to give room for negative narrative.

Makinde, who observed that interest groups in the United Kingdom had played important roles in the politics of Nigeria, said that no fewer than 200,000 Nigerians now live in the United Kingdom.

He said that the task ahead of the PDP is to regroup and launch chapters everywhere Nigerians are found.

The Governor said:” I am aware of the enormity of the responsibility that rests on me. The searchlight is beamed upon me, and all my actions are being met with the strictest scrutiny.”

“I know that it is the seeming controversial that will be given more attention. My open declaration of my assets is generating furore in certain quarters, but these are unnecessary distractions, my focus and the focus of our administration is on good governance. We shall not be distracted”, he added

Governor Makinde also seized the opportunity to invite investors to Oyo state, declaring that his efforts so far have been geared towards eradicating the out-of-school children syndrome, which he said, accounts for 400,000 right now, expansion of the state’s economy and promoting security.

“In the past month, I have focused on two things to set Oyo State on the path to greatness: Ensuring that we put the right policies and processes in place, and working with ideas that will help increase Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in the state.”

He stated that his focus on security was borne out of the fact that without security, businesses cannot thrive adding that he had given his commitment to enhancing security to the Commanders of the Task Force in charge of Oyo and Osun, Operation Burst.

According to the Governor, the decision by the state government to cancel the N3, 000 school levy, and examination fees had resulted in the unprecedented huge turnout of students for placement examination into JSS1, and the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) conducted in the state last week.

The Governor also said that the commitment of the PDP towards strategizing for the future was not in doubt adding that members of the party must also be alive to their responsibilities.

He said: “The PDP has one job and one job only:  regroup, refocus, re-strategise. Creating Chapters, everywhere in the world where Nigerians are found, shows our commitment to this job. I believe Nigerians have had the opportunity to see clearly which party really means business.

“I have one request to make of you: never stop talking about the good things we are doing. When good things are not given prominence, the consensus is that only bad things are happening. We cannot allow evil narratives about the PDP or its stakeholders to gain any type of momentum. It is our jobs as worthy ambassadors to shut down such narratives, quickly and definitively.”

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