Drama as police arrest Anambra ‘madman’ cultivating marijuana farm

The Anambra State Police Command has arrested a 43-year-old man, Patrick Ojele, who pretended to be mentally unstable while secretly running a marijuana farm in Awka, the state capital.

It was gathered that the suspect had been running the farm for over two years.

In a statement released on Thursday, the spokesman for the Anambra State Police Command, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, said the operatives attached to the operations department, Awka, arrested the suspect after a routine patrol on Wednesday.

Ikenga said the suspect was arrested along the Awka–Enugu Expressway near the Ngozika Estate and later led the team to the hidden farm, where large quantities of weeds suspected to be cannabis sativa were recovered.

The statement read in part, “The Anambra State Police Command has arrested a 43-year-old man, Patrick Ojele, who pretended to be mentally unstable while secretly cultivating a marijuana farm in Awka, the state capital.

“The police operatives attached to the Operations Department, Awka, nabbed the suspect on September 17, 2025, during a routine patrol along the Awka–Enugu Expressway near the Ngozika Estate.

“He later led the team to the hidden farm, where large quantities of weeds suspected to be cannabis sativa were recovered.

“The Commissioner of Police, CP Ikioye Orutugu, noted that the arrest reflects the command’s renewed strategy of cutting off criminal supplies by targeting drug dealers who embolden cultists and violent offenders.”

According to him, the CP further directed that the suspect should be handed over to the Special Anti-Cultism Squad, Enugwu-Ukwu, for discreet investigation to trace his buyers and dismantle the wider distribution network.