Forty-nine-year-old Fred Obi was about to board an Ethiopian Air flight
from Abuja to Tel Aviv, Israel with a strange cargo allegedly concealed in his
stomach when the law caught up with him. He had ingested 1.594kg of cocaine.
But he was not the only one boarding that same flight with the intention
of transporting narcotics they had ingested on November 22, 2014 when they were
arrested by men of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency at the Nnamdi
Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
Also arrested were Ekechi Ferdinand, 36; Okonkwo Paul, 20; Azubuogu
Obumneme, 30; Okechi Anthony, 34; Anozie Henry, 34 and Okafor Francis, 51.
NDLEA spokesperson, Mr. Mitchell Ofoyeju, confirmed that the raid which
was headed by the agency’s commander at the Abuja Airport, Mr. Hamisu Lawan,
would turn out to be a revealing one.
The suspects, who were said to have been arrested and isolated, were
soon made to excrete the drug they had ingested.
“The last of the suspects eventually finished excreting the drugs in his
stomach this morning (Thursday, November 26),” Ofoyeju said.
Ferdinand excreted 1.616kg of cocaine, Paul – 1.103kg, Obumneme –
1.450kg, Anthony – 935 grammes while Henry exctreted 874 grammes of cocaine.
The oldest of the suspects, Francis, on his part excreted 1.167kg.
All the suspects, except Obi, were said to have Hong Kong as the
destination on their tickets.
NDLEA Chairman, Ahmadu Giade, said that the arrest of the suspects was
an added victory to the war against drug trafficking in the country.
He said, “Coming at a time when commanders of our agency are holding a
summit to move the agency forward, this is a welcome development.
“Having seven suspected drug traffickers on a single flight is a
reflection of the desperation of drug cartels.
“But this will prove to them that the NDLEA has the capacity to stop
drug trafficking no matter what method they employ.
“Fortunately for the suspects as well, our arrest has saved their lives
because for the suspects heading to Hong Kong, it is clearly stated in their
visas that drug trafficking in Hong Kong attracts the death penalty. Nigeria
has equally been saved from an embarrassment their arrest would have caused if
they were caught over there.”
Meanwhile, the NDLEA has been urged to concentrate on intelligence
gathering to identify the sources of wealth of drug barons and stop them from
gaining control of real estates, banks and other legitimate businesses in the
country.
In a paper titled Establishing an Intelligence Database: Process and
Importance for Sustainable Drug Control delivered at the 2014 Command
Officers’ Summit in Kaduna, the state Governor, Mukhtar Yero, called on the
agency to seek elaborate collaboration with stakeholders in the war against
narcotics.
According to a statement by Ofoyeju, Kaduna State has presented a bill
to the state House of Assembly to prohibit the abuse of lawful substances like Zakami,
an intoxicating local plant said to be used by youths in the state.
Giade said, “Drug barons are constantly devising new ways of smuggling
drugs to markets around the world. Most significantly, modes of drug
concealment have assumed a more sophisticated pattern. We must continue to
embrace change and maintain our superiority ahead of drug syndicates.
“Let us identify better, faster and innovative ways of getting a task
done. Let us learn how to prevent and manage crisis. Let us identify barriers
to effective training, anti-drug abuse counselling, information gathering,
diligent prosecution and proffer solutions on the way forward.”
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