TWO Europe-based Nigerian “businessmen” who flew home on holiday have been arrested after attempting to return to Paris with their stomachs loaded with cocaine, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has said.
Aliocus Godian Odife and Sam Blackborn were intercepted on Wednesday 28 October during the outward clearance of Air France flight AF 832 from Abuja to Paris. Between them, the pair excreted 200 wraps of the Class A drug weighing a total of 3.460 kilogrammes.
Odife, who claims to live in France where he works in a factory, arrived in Nigeria for a short holiday on 21 October. He was arrested on his return flight after a body scan confirmed the presence of foreign objects in his stomach. Under interview, he admitted to having ingested 110 pellets of cocaine. He was placed under observation and subsequently excreted all 110 wraps, which tested positive for cocaine and weighed 1.901 kilogrammes.
His co-traveller, Sam Blackborn, was nabbed on the same flight at the departure hall of the Abuja airport. His body scan likewise returned positive for ingestion, and he confessed to having swallowed 90 pellets of cocaine. Under observation, he excreted all 90 wraps, which tested positive for the drug and weighed 1.559 kilogrammes.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, said the interception of the two couriers at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport was “a fresh warning to those who think they can use their residence abroad as cover to traffic drugs across Nigerian borders.”
The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the agency, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), commended officers at the airport and warned that there is “no hiding place for anyone who chooses to risk their life and liberty by ingesting illicit drugs for a fee.”
In a separate operation, NDLEA operatives on patrol along the Abuja–Kaduna expressway arrested a woman, Aisha Isah, at the toll gate with 266 rounds of live AK-47 ammunition.
The agency also reported large consignments of illicit drugs seized in sweeps across Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Ondo, Oyo and Edo states.
In Lagos, officers acting on intelligence on the movement of skunk from the Island to the Mainland intercepted a white Volkswagen LT 28 bus along Kudirat Abiola Way, Ikeja, on Sunday 25 October, recovering 537 kilogrammes of the psychoactive substance. The same day, another team intercepted a brown J5 bus along the Gbagada–Oshodi expressway with 439 kilogrammes of the same substance.
In Oyo State, a follow-up operation at Idere Road, Igboora, on Thursday 29 October led to the arrest of Oguntona Nasiru, 46, and Soji Balogun, 47, who were caught loading 554 kilogrammes of skunk into a Volvo truck. The operation targeted a notorious dealer known as ‘Omo Oba’, who escaped arrest on 25 October when officers seized 309.5 kilogrammes of the strain popularly called ‘Ghanaian Loud’ linked to him.
In Kano, a raid in the Tsamiya area of Gezawa on Monday 26 October recovered 247,500 tablets of diazepam weighing 57.7 kilogrammes and 100,000 tablets of Exol-5 weighing 38.7 kilogrammes. Two days later, officers stormed the Dorayi area and arrested Ziya’ulhaq Abdullahi, 35, and Garba Muhammed, 52, with 19,250 pills of tramadol 225mg weighing 13.6 kilogrammes.
On the Zaria–Kano expressway, a 68-year-old man, Ifeanyi Egwolonwu, was arrested at Gwargwaje with 2,770 ampoules of pentazocine injection, 100 ampoules of diazepam injection, 11,000 tablets of diazepam and 4,500 tablets of Exol-5. A further raid at Tashan Banke led to the arrest of seven suspects, including Faisal Adamu, and the recovery of 178.85 kilogrammes of cannabis alongside quantities of diazepam, tramadol, Exol-5 and pregabalin.
In Ondo State, officers raided cannabis farms in the Ijare forest on Sunday 25 October, arresting four suspects including Bassey Okon, 24, Abraham Edet, 20, and Oto Udo, 24. A total of 16 bags of processed cannabis weighing 180 kilogrammes were recovered.
In Edo State, a team supported by soldiers raided Eko Camp in Ilushi, Esan South East Local Government Area, on Wednesday 28 October, destroying a cannabis plantation measuring 1.646 hectares with an estimated yield of 4,115.53 kilogrammes. A 50-year-old woman, Christiana Uboi, was arrested at the camp with 301 kilogrammes of processed cannabis, while another 176 kilogrammes were recovered during the raid.
In Sokoto, operatives of the Zone 7 Command arrested a 68-year-old man, Ibrahim Ayuba, with 236.6 kilogrammes of skunk on Saturday 31 October.
The agency said its commands across the country had continued their War Against Drug Abuse sensitisation activities in schools, places of worship, workplaces and communities over the past week, including lectures at Obawole Grammar School II in Ojodu, Lagos; Nsukka High School in Enugu; Government Technical College in Dorayi Babba Rijiyar Zaki, Gwale LGA, Kano; and Ajagbe Comprehensive High School in Iperu, Ogun State.
General Marwa charged officers and men of the agency to sustain the current tempo against drug cartels while not relenting in drug demand reduction efforts.
