Cocaine: Engineer nabbed at Abuja airport-3 others in NDLEA net
Manifesto vehemently insisted that he had no drugs in his stomach even as the result of the drug test showed that he was positive for drug ingestion. He threatened to drag the Agency and its operatives to court if they delayed his departure unnecessarily. Izuchukwu, 26, and a passenger on an Ethiopian Airways flight to […]
Manifesto vehemently insisted that he had no drugs in his stomach even as the result of the drug test showed that he was positive for drug ingestion. He threatened to drag the Agency and its operatives to court if they delayed his departure unnecessarily. Izuchukwu, 26, and a passenger on an Ethiopian Airways flight to Dubai, went berserk after testing positive to drug ingestion. He removed his belt and threatened to commit suicide as the NDLEA officials led him out of the screening area at the international wing of the airport.
Both suspects were placed under observation to enable them to excrete the drugs they had allegedly ingested. But they became wilder and started insulting the operatives for levelling false allegations against them when after four excretions that lasted two days, no drugs were recovered. The operatives at the airport were also in a serious confusion since the two suspects had tested positive to drugs. “No suspect placed on observation for up to 48 hours and excretes up to four times without drugs excretion,” said one of the Agency’s officials.
Worried by the suspect’s not excreting any drugs after being detained for two days within which they went to toilet four times, the NDLEA Commander at the Abuja Airport, Alhaji Hamisu Lawal ordered for a fresh test to be conducted on the suspects, which he personally supervised. The result of the second test again indicated that the two suspects tested positive to drugs.
“Though I was confident that our machines have never given us any doubtful result, no suspect who tested positive to drugs in the history of the agency went to the toilet up to four times without excreting drugs. So, why should the case of these suspects be different? I ordered that we should still keep them in detention under close observation. It was indeed a moment of decision for me.
“It was the fifth time that the drugs began to come out and he was found to have ingested 100 wraps of white powdery substance that turned out to be cocaine weighing 1.6 kilograms. The second suspect, Emmanuel, excreted 60 wraps of cocaine that weighed 850 grams. Immediately the two suspects started excreting the drugs they’d ingested, they became sober and started pleading. That was when we got a relief. But we are trying to find out what exactly happened that they delayed excreting their drugs beyond the necessary period,” Lawal said.
Engineer Manifesto told Weekly Trust that he is a father of two who live in London. He said he agreed to smuggle the drugs for 6,000 pounds out of which he was given N200,000 as advance payment. He said he was driven by the financial reward to traffic the drugs. The Imo State-born engineer, who hails from Idiator, said he was only trying to experiment how one feels after ingesting drugs.
“You know as a systems engineer, one is always curious to know what is happening around him. It was not as if I really wanted to smuggle the drugs. I was trying to know how those traffickers feel whenever they ingest drugs. It is part of the experiences that engineers are required to possess. I just hope the operatives will understand,” he said.
In the case of Emmanuel who said he resides in Lagos Island before his arrest, it was the devil that pushed him into drugs trafficking. He said he did everything he could to ensure that he was not arrested by officials during the trip. Though he could not reveal the steps he took to avoid his arrest, he said he was very surprised that the operatives were able to even see him at the airport.
“The confidence I had that nobody would see and arrest me was what made me to threaten that I was going to commit suicide. It was my business predicament that made me to smuggle illicit drugs. I thought the illicit drugs business was a good recovery from my bankruptcy. I was a successful businessman until I was duped of N4 million. My mother is sick, my rent had expired and I am a family man with two children. That was how I agreed to the 3,000 dollar drugs deal to re-establish myself.
“I was boisterous at the point of arrest because I felt disappointed by the strategies I adopted to ensure that I succeeded in this trip. I felt bad and did not know what to do. It was like my world had ended. I am an Igbo man from Idemili in Anambra State. What can I do now? Somebody should please help me,” he said.
In a related development, European-based Nigerian driver and a technician were arrested by NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos within the week for allegedly attempting to export cocaine from Nigeria. NDLEA Commander at the airport, Mr Victor Cole-Showers gave the names of the suspects as Udeh Dominic, 35, a driver living in Italy and a technician, Nwodo Richard Onyeji, 39 living in Spain. Udeh was apprehended during the screening of passengers on Alitalia flight to Rome while Nwodo was caught at about the same time trying to board a KLM flight to Amsterdam.
Mr Cole-Showers told Weekly Trust that Udeh and Nwodo were placed under observation and had excreted 23 and 57 wraps of the drugs respectively as at the time of going to press. He said full scale investigation would commence into both cases as soon as the suspects excrete all the wraps they are suspected to have ingested.
Udeh told Weekly Trust that he ingested 77 wraps of cocaine for 5,000 dollars while Nwodo said he ingested 90 wraps for 4,000 Euros. The two suspects are from Enugu State. Udeh said, “a Senegalese I met in Italy phoned a Nigerian. After they spoke on phone, the Nigerian gave me the drugs in a hotel in Ojota Area of Lagos. I am 35 years old and a commercial bus driver in Enugu before I travelled to Europe in search of greener pastures.
“I went into drug trafficking to save my sick mother. My mother is sick and I have lost my job. Nobody is willing to help me. I feel very bad now because I did not help my mother and I am in big trouble. I have learnt my lesson. You don’t need to deposit any amount of money before you go into drug trafficking. The barons will pay you, arrange for your travel documents and even give you advance payment,” Udeh said.
Nwodo, a refrigerator technician which ingested 90 wraps of cocaine in a hotel in Mile 2 area of Lagos, said he made the biggest mistake of his life by venturing into drug trafficking. He blamed it on joblessness and also gave a word of advice to Nigerians seeking for visas to travel out of the country. “I took a wrong step that brought me here. I feel I was irresponsible. This has happened because I was jobless for over a year. It is a lesson for me. As for Nigerians seeking for visas, my advice is that if they are going for business or to further their education, good, but if it is to seek for employment, they better remain here because things have changed.
“In Europe today, jobs like sweeping roads and working in morgues are now being done by indigenes unlike in the past. The economic meltdown has affected every sector and things have changed,” Nwodo stated.