Aderinoye Queen Christmas, a former beauty queen, has turned herself in to the Lagos State Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) after being on the run for eight months. The NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, confirmed her surrender in a statement on Sunday.
Aderinoye, whose real name is Oluwadamilola Aderinoye, had been wanted by the NDLEA since January. She fled her Lekki, Lagos residence following a raid on January 24, 2024, when NDLEA operatives discovered evidence of her involvement in drug trafficking. During the raid, authorities recovered 606 grams of Canadian Loud (a synthetic cannabis), an electronic weighing scale, drug packaging materials, a black RAV 4 SUV, and personal items.
Aderinoye, who was Miss Commonwealth Nigeria Culture 2015/2016 and the founder of the Queen Christmas Foundation, claimed she had been hiding in Akure, Ondo State. She surrendered to the NDLEA on August 28, 2024.
In related news, the NDLEA recently seized hard drugs worth N17.9 billion in major operations across Lagos and Rivers States, including 31,124,600 pills of tramadol and bottles of codeine-based syrup intercepted at the Onne and Tincan seaports.