- NDLEA intercepts over N7b opioids at Apapa, Onne seaports
Two businessmen, Ihejirika Okechukwu Emmanuel and Iwuagwu Ikedi Victory as well as a Canada-based nurse Usman Grace Khadijat Olami, have been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos for attempting to import and export cocaine pellets and parcels of Loud through the airport.
Also, at the Apapa and Onne seaports, drugs worth over N7billion were seizzed by the agency.
Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja, Femi Babafemi, made this known in a statement in Abuja.
According to the statement, Ihejirika, who frequents Thailand from where he claims to be importing fish into Nigeria, was arrested on October 15 while attempting to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Thailand via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Babafemi said when he was scanned, the result showed he ingested cocaine.
“As a result, he was placed under excretion observation during which he expelled five big egg size wraps of cocaine weighing 400 grammes. Later, the 51-year-old suspect confessed that he was to be paid upon successful delivery of the drug consignment in Thailand. He said he needed the money to boost his fish importation business,” Babafemi said.
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Similarly, Babafemi said, the agency’s operatives at the Lagos airport last Thursday intercepted a 26-year-old businessman Iwuagwu Ikedi Victory, who came from Brazil via Addis Ababa during the inward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airlines flight.
The suspect’s body scan revealed the ingestion of illicit drugs. He excreted a pellet of cocaine weighing 22 grammes, the statement added.
“He, however, confessed that he ingested 30 wraps of the illicit drug in Brazil but excreted 29 pellets in Addis Ababa, where he handed them over to another person,” it said.