The Senate has summoned the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency which accused Deputy Leader, Senator Oyelola Ashiru of stocking and distributing hard drugs, to appear before the panel and prove its case.
It also set up a six-member panel to investigate the allegation by the NDLEA.
The Senate took the decision on Tuesday after Senator Ashiru reported the accusations of the NDLEA to the Red Chamber, complaining that his privilege was breached by the anti-drug agency.
“The Senate immediately sets up an ad hoc committee to invite the NDLEA to come and justify the allegation against Sen. Ashiru,” the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, announced, after Ashiru lodged his complaint.
Earlier, Ashiru, while seeking the protection of the Senate, complained that he incurred the wrath of the NDLEA for contributing to a debate on the floor on October 15, where he called on the agency to review its operations and tackle internal corruption at the agency.
The debate was on a ‘Bill for an Act to Establish the National Institute for Drug Awareness and Rehabilitation’, seen by some senators as an attempt to duplicate the duties of the NDLEA.
Ashiru, who supported the bill, had stated, “The failure of NDLEA has resulted in the high rate of drug trafficking going on in the country. The NDLEA is corrupt and compromised hence, I support the creation of a National Institute for Drug Awareness and Rehabilitation.”
However, on Monday, the NDLEA disagreed with the views expressed by Ashiru and berated him for making such a comment against it.
The Chairman of the agency, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa (retd.), while speaking through the spokesman of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, accused the senator of running a drug business and had had a couple of encounters with its operatives.
He said, “The personal house of the senator (Ashiru) in GRA Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State, had been raided in the recent past, where drugs and illicit substances were recovered while two of his aides: Ibrahim Mohammed and Muhammed Yahaya were arrested. Based on credible intelligence and surveillance which confirmed that the senator’s house was being used as a drug joint for drug dealers and users, the house was raided by our operatives at 1:30pm on February 4, 2024, during which the two aides were arrested, while a third suspect escaped arrest.
“In an earlier encounter with the senator, the agency also received intelligence that some of his boys popularly known as ‘Omo Senator’ operating from his hometown, Offa, were equally dealing in illicit drugs. A raid was subsequently carried out on their joint in Offa, where one of them, Oluwatosin Odepidan was arrested and illicit drugs such as methamphetamine and cannabis were recovered from him on June 11, 2023.
“The bid to get the agency to drop the case against Odepidan, including a visit to the Kwara State Command headquarters of the agency in Ilorin by the Personal Assistant to the senator, one Omoluabi, was rebuffed as Odepidan was promptly arrested and charged to court.”
On the floor, Ashiru vehemently denied the accusation of the NDLEA, describing it as a “smear” campaign.
Ashiru, who claimed not to know or could physically identify any hard substances, also said he neither drinks alcohol nor any other thing “apart from water.”
“The NDLEA now tried to gaslight me…For the protection of myself and the entire Senate, we must do something,” he added.
