Kano/Abuja — The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted a consignment of cannabis concealed inside a gallon of palm oil at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport and issued a public safety alert to travellers against accepting packages from third parties.
According to a statement by the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, operatives on Friday, 16 October 2026, arrested a female passenger, Fatimah Ahmad, during outward clearance of an Ethiopian Airlines flight bound for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, via Addis Ababa.
A search of a gallon of palm oil in her luggage uncovered 511.75 grams of cannabis, popularly known as skunk. Ahmad told investigators that her cousin, Abubakar Yahaya, had given her the gallon. Yahaya was subsequently arrested at the airport car park.
Video footage released alongside the alert shows NDLEA officers in protective gloves carefully cutting open the metal keg and emptying its contents into a bowl, revealing multiple parcels of the drug thoroughly soaked in the reddish-brown oil.
The agency used the incident to warn members of the public, especially travellers, never to accept or transport packages whose contents they have not personally verified. Officials noted that unsuspecting individuals can easily become mules for drug traffickers and face severe legal consequences.
The Kano airport interception formed part of a wider series of intelligence-led operations conducted between 12 and 17 October across Lagos, Edo, Ondo, Bauchi, Kano, Kaduna and the Federal Capital Territory.
In one of the biggest hauls, a joint examination with the Nigeria Customs Service at the Apapa port in Lagos uncovered 8,725 kilogrammes of powdered tramadol hydrochloride, valued at over ₦6.98 billion, that had been declared as maize starch in a shipment from India.
Additional seizures of cannabis, tramadol, diazepam and other illicit substances, along with the arrest of multiple suspects (including an 85-year-old woman), were recorded during the same period.
NDLEA reiterated its commitment to disrupting drug trafficking networks and urged the public to remain vigilant, stressing that ignorance of a package’s contents is not a defence under Nigerian law.
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