At the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA) in Abuja, two businessmen were apprehended by National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) agents who had hidden in their stomachs shipments of cocaine and heroin intended for Hong Kong and France.
While 38-year-old ThankGod Emenike was arrested at the Abuja airport’s boarding gate on Friday, October 20, during the outward clearance of passengers on Air France flight 818 to Paris, another passenger, 41-year-old Agbo Prince, was taken into NDLEA custody on Saturday, October 21, while attempting to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 950 to Hong Kong via Addis Ababa, according to a statement signed by NDLEA’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday.
After a body scan proved they had used illegal narcotics, they were both taken into custody and arrested. Following several days in detention and multiple excretions, Chidike released 49 cocaine pellets totaling 998.53 grammes, while Emenike released 72 wraps of heroin weighing 1.171 kilogrammes. Chidike stated in his statement that he is a businessman at the Alaba International Market in the Ojo neighbourhood of Lagos who deals in spare parts. The statement stated, “He added that he was to be paid N3.5 million, which he intended to use to import goods from Hong Kong.”
Similarly, on Wednesday, October 25, NDLEA agents at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja, Lagos, stopped a passenger on a Qatar Airways flight headed for Oman, Agbo Tochukwu, who was reportedly carrying 58 packages of skunk, each weighing 29.10 kg, as he was going through the airport’s terminal 11 procedures.
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“According to Tochukwu’s statement, he moved to Oman on May 6th and worked as a hotel attendant there before getting involved in drug trafficking,” the NDLEA stated.
In the meantime, during the course of four days, four interdiction operations in various sections of Ondo state resulted in the recovery of 2,197 kg of skunk. Tuesday, October 24, at Ukugu Forest in Ipele, produced a cargo of 691 kg, which was recovered from there. On Wednesday, October 25, 1,165.5 kg were confiscated in Uso, Owo LGA.
On Monday, October 23, at Agula Road, Ogbese, Akure North LGA, a 32-year-old suspect, Ifeanyi Abuguja, was taken into custody with 87 kg of the same material. On Thursday, October 26, 253.5 kg of the substance were found at Ogbese market in Akure North LGA.
In Oyo state, on Sunday, October 22, two suspects, Ayo Dele, 19, and Olaitan Ahmed, 23, were taken into custody in a drug den in the Nalende neighbourhood of Ibadan city with 160 grammes of cannabis. A follow-up operation at their warehouse in the same neighbourhood resulted in the discovery of 332 kg of the same substance.
“On Monday, October 23, agents from the Lagos Command of the Agency stopped and retrieved a car carrying 209 kg of spirits in the Okun Ajah region of the state. On Saturday, October 28, agents from Gombe found an abandoned shipment of 401 kg of sativa cannabis and 21,000 tramadol capsules in the Tumfure region of the state.
“NDLEA operatives from Edo state stormed the Utese forest in Ovia North East LGA early on Sunday, October 29. They evacuated 2,931.3 kilogrammes of cannabis sativa from a warehouse in the forest,” the statement continued.
