Grandma, 3 others nabbed with cocaine at airport
The suspect who resides on Musa Adewokun Street, Ojota, Lagos, before her arrest, said she attempted committing suicide several times due to hardship, adding, “I was to travel to Atlanta in the United States of America when these NDLEA people arrested me. I don’t know how they managed to know what I was carrying. But […]
The suspect who resides on Musa Adewokun Street, Ojota, Lagos, before her arrest, said she attempted committing suicide several times due to hardship, adding, “I was to travel to Atlanta in the United States of America when these NDLEA people arrested me. I don’t know how they managed to know what I was carrying. But I suspect some witches in the area where I live.”
“I was an international trader before I encountered some financial difficulties. I became indebted and when there was no way for me to pay the debt, I decided to smuggle narcotics. A man I met in a popular eatery introduced me to the drug trade. I used to go to London to buy clothes and jewelleries since 2004 but I lost everything. I have three daughters; the eldest who is 21 is a single parent like me. Now I am old and cannot work anywhere, no help from anywhere and I got frustrated. They said they will pay me when I get to the US,” she stated.
Khadijat said though no one in the area she lived knows that she was into drugs, many knew that she goes abroad for clothes business and they envy her. She said since she became bankrupt about two years ago, life had been very difficult for her. She said she hardly payed the school fees of her children and even feed. “I am always indebted to the landlord and all the people around me. No help was coming from anywhere for me. At a stage, I felt dejected and was finding it very difficult to even survive.”
In another operation, one Godday Ugweogbu, 31, was also arrested by operatives of the NDLEA at the international wing of the same airport when he was returning from Brazil with 93 wraps of a substance that tested positive for cocaine in his stomach.
He was caught during the screening of passengers on a South Africa, airline flight that arrived at the airport from Brazil. Godday is married and has three children and resides at Shino Adeyemi Street, Ilogbo Lagos.
He told Weekly Trust from his detention room at the NDLEA office at the airport that he travelled to Brazil last year in search of greener pastures but ended smuggling illicit drugs. He said he ingested the drugs several days before he began the journey. He said he was earlier warned not to eat solid food after the ingestion until he arrived at his destination but could not adhere to the instruction because he was so hungry and had to eat.
“My brother, you know hunger has no respect and so I had to eat. Shortly after I ate in Brazil, my belle (stomach) started turning me. I managed to enter the aircraft like that. My journey was not smooth because of the way belle was turning me. I had to enter the toilet in the plane. Come and see disgrace, I excreted three wraps in the flight, but I quickly washed them and swallowed again. I have financial problem. I was stranded in Brazil. I decided to smuggle the drugs because I was promised N2.5 million,” Godday stated.
The jovial Igbo man who hails from Orlu in Imo State, said he was very surprised by the ability of the NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport to detect the drugs in his stomach and arrested him. “I ate very well before I swallowed the drugs. Again, i ate before departing Brazil believing that the food might have buried the drugs. But immediately i attempted to pass through their screening, the NDLEA guys at the airport politely nabbed me and whisked me to their inner office where the long journey started.”
NDLEA operatives at the airport have also intercepted 6.350 kilograms of cocaine industrially packed inside 26 pairs of garden shears and 60 trowels imported into the country as industrial raw materials. The consignment with Air Waybill number 176-8457 3576 was imported from Brazil in an Emirate Cargo flight by Fruitful Investment Nigeria Limited. The drugs were intercepted at the cargo section of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, (MMIA) Lagos.
Two clearing and forwarding agents, Abdullahi Shaba and Salau Nurudeen Wale who attempted to clear the consignment were immediately arrested. The drugs which were shipped by a Brazilian firm, Absoluta Trading Company, had an estimated street value of N80.8 million. Shaba and Wale have since denied ownership of the goods. They claimed they were contracted by a firm to clear the goods but could not give more details.
The Chairman of the NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade, who visited the airport to see things for himself, attributed the recent successes recorded to good foreign collaboration and commitment to the drug war.
“The discovery was made possible through exchange of intelligence with the United Kingdom under the Operation West Bridge in which Nigeria is a key participant. This certainly signifies the end of the road for drug barons because we have a similar understanding with other countries. We shall continue to detect and seize their drugs notwithstanding the mode of concealment they decide to use. I assure you that the case will be thoroughly investigated with a view to making more arrests. Anybody linked to these arrested persons will surely be arrested, questioned and when found culpable, will be prosecuted,” he said.
Confirming the arrests, acting NDLEA Commander at the airport, Alhaji Idris Bello. said Khadijat was arrested after she tested positive to drug ingestion during screening of passengers on Delta Airline flight while the anti-narcotics agency in Brazil notified the NDLEA through intelligence report of plans by drug barons in both countries to airlift the drugs concealed in factory form in the handles of the garden shears and trowels, adding that, “the handles were practically broken before the drugs were discovered. The two clearing and forwarding agents arrested are assisting NDLEA operatives in further investigations.”