CELEBRITIES SECRETE WEALTH MAKING METHOD BLOWN

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency is taking covert steps to monitor
specific Nigerian celebrities moving in and out of the country, Saturday PUNCH
has learnt.
Spokesperson for the NDLEA, Mitchell Ofoyeju, who dropped the hint during a
telephone interview with our correspondent on Thursday, did not reveal the
names of such celebrities.
He was reacting to reports that some people in the entertainment industry find it
easy to traffic drugs in and out of the country.
Ofoyeju said, "We have some people we are working on but it is not for us to say
who is under our surveillance. The purpose of the investigation will become
defeated. We have some credible leads that we are working on.
"This is not to say the NDLEA is relaxing its surveillance on ordinary Nigerians or
other categories of travellers to ensure the eradication of drug trafficking in this
country.
"You need to remember that the agency is an elite organisation that works
basically through investigation. We don't totally discountenance rumours, but
such must have some leads we can work on."
Ofoyeju said the increasing successes of the agency's war against drug
trafficking was the main reason the United States removed Nigeria's name from
the list of "drug major states."
Asked if the renewed focus on celebrities was a result of the alleged drug
ingestion saga involving Yoruba actor, Babatunde Omidina, popularly called Baba
Suwe, Ofoyeju said the agency had always ensured that no Nigerian was treated
as a "sacred cow" in combating drug trafficking.
He stated, "It is not even about Baba Suwe. The man was picked because there
are no sacred cows. Our effort is a continuous thing. The issue of being a
celebrity does not come in at all in the fight against drug trafficking.
"Everybody must be subject to the law of the land. Investigations that have to do
with celebrities could take a long time depending on the mode of operation. It is
a gradual process."
Ofoyeju did not also give the reason for the choice of particular celebrities under
investigation but promised that the outcome would be made known in due
course.