A harvest of cocaine at Lagos airport

It is only January yet the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport has been busy arresting drug traffickers including a woman who was promised N2m to bring in hard drugs and a man promised the same amount to ingest 64 wraps of heroin, as Daily Trust reports

On January 27, Onyejegbu Ifesinachi Jennifer, 33, arrived Lagos from Sao Paolo, Brazil via an Ethiopian airline flight.

• World Cancer Day: Only 3 public radiotherapy centres in Nigeria
• No ethnic group should lord it over others — Gbajabiamila

Her reunion with her four children however is going to be delayed as something Jennifer herself used the word “terrible” to describe what happened.

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), caught Jennifer with a massive 26.850kg of cocaine, neatly concealed and sewn into duvets she was bringing into the country.

“It is worthy of note that this 26.850kg with a street value of over N7bn is the largest singular seizure in this command within the last 12 years,” Ahmadu Garba, the NDLEA commander at the MMIA told Daily Trust.

Our correspondent reports that the single seizure was more than half of the entire cocaine seizure (51.404kg) the command made in 2020.

Jennifer, a single mother, sobbed as she claimed that someone in Italy, who sought her help to deliver the duvets to Nigeria, gave the content to her. She never bothered to check the contents, she said, but she was promised N2m to deliver the items.

“Somebody contacted me [and asked] if I was travelling to Nigeria and I said yes. He asked if I could help bring some bags down to Nigeria and I said, okay.

“I said what was the content of the bag, he said it’s just blankets. I said why I am asking is because my luggage is just two pieces. He said his blankets are not much. When he dropped the bag for me, I didn’t know the content. I just went straight to the airport to catch my flight to Nigeria. On getting to Nigeria, the NDLEA controlled me and that was when I got to know what was inside the bag. When they brought out the blankets I saw that it wasn’t the number he told me. I was shocked.

“I didn’t check the content of the bag because I was rushing to the airport. I easily trust people because if I tell somebody something, I am telling the person from the depth of my heart,” she said.

Asked of the details of the person who handed the items to her, she said she didn’t meet him but only got to know of him through a friend whose identity she also did not disclose.

She, however, said she felt “terrible” for the mess she put herself in as she was only coming to Nigeria to see her children. She did not deny that she was motivated by the money.

“They said they were going to give me N2m. I was like ‘wao! just to take the bag down to Nigeria?!’ Now I feel terrible. I don’t know how to describe it. I’ve never seen myself like this,” she added.

But Jennifer was not the only one caught in January trying to move hard drugs across Nigeria’s border.

Man swallows hard drugs for 4,000 Euros

Edosa Christopher was arrested on January 24, 2021, during the outward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airline to Italy at the MMIA with 950 grams of heroin.

Edosa was given away by a body scan that revealed he had ingested some hard drug. At the time of this report, he had excreted 68 wraps of heroin.

Edosa who spoke from the custody of the NDLEA said he regretted his deed because he never considered the implication of swallowing hard drugs but was only focused on the 4000 Euros (about N2m) he was promised.

“I was caught with some ingested substances. I never knew until I was here and they discovered it was heroin. To be honest with you, somebody gave it to me because this is my first time. I really don’t know much about it (the hard drug). I was just going to Italy when someone introduced the guy to me [and] that I should help him take this item to somebody, that he was going to give me some money. I was promised 4,000 euros specifically,” he said.

Edosa, like Jennifer, insisted he knew nothing about the substance and this being his first time, was only focused on the money promised to him at the end of the assignment.

While Edosa and Jennifer are facing the consequences of their actions, three others tried to evade the law.

Passenger abandons bag

On January 25, when a passenger realised he was likely to be caught with the 8.200kg of cocaine he wanted to travel with, he abandoned the bag and fled.

However, following investigations by the NDLEA, three suspects namely Abubakar Aliyu, Emmanuel Iyke Aniebonam and Onwurah Kelvin were arrested.

Daily Trust reports that the command had earlier on January 9 arrested one Okeke Uchenna Aloy Pascal, a ‘fugitive’ with 13kg of cocaine ‘cleverly’ concealed in packet shirts. It was the first seizure of the year in the command.

The commander, who expressed shock at the ‘daring’ moves of the traffickers, warned them to embrace another trade or be assured of “walking into the widespread net of the command.”

He said in line with the directive of the new Chairman/Chief Executive of the agency, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa, there is no hiding place for the “bad guys.”

According to him, the successes recorded in recent times were achieved “through the selfless sacrifices exhibited by the officers and men of the command even in the face of serious dangers [and] challenges.”

He said the leadership provided by the NDLEA management and the partnership with the UK border force, British National Crime Agency, which paved way for the creation of the Joint Border Task Force Project (JBTF) has transformed the NDLEA MMIA Command.

The avalanche of seizures only in the month of January, according to observers, is a cause for worry.

An officer said there are indications that traffickers might be getting more daring and desperate to ‘recoup’ the losses of 2020 caused by the lockdown.

“This is a challenge for the NDLEA to be more alert. Imagine if this huge volume of drugs had not been intercepted and they found their way into the streets. The damage would have been unimaginable. The new Chairman has given all the commands a clear directive to buckle up and be ahead of these traffickers who are destroying the country,” he said.

Focus on entry points NDLEA urged

A former Commandant at the MMIA, retired Group Capt. John Ojikutu asked the NDLEA to focus more on international entry points than exit points as well as working to unearth insiders at the airport conniving with the couriers.

“Cocaine is not grown, manufactured nor taken as much in Nigeria as in places like the US and the Far East. The question to ask is how does it get into or out of Nigeria? At a workshop I organised in 2010, an Israeli resource person mentioned that over 70% of drugs that were getting into the US through Europe were coming from Nigeria; that was research that probably helped the planners of the December 2009 underwear bomber, Abdulmutallab.

“The NDLEA should focus more on the international entry points than the exit points. There are many insiders who assist the couriers and they are among the airport and security staff within and outside the airports. N7bn worth of cocaine is not for the couriers but for some unseen hands.

“Secondly, the NDLEA must focus on some or certain airlines that are couriers too. Some foreign airlines have records as the preferred airlines for the couriers over 40 years in this country and we pretend as if we don’t know. We better sanction them at the Nigeria entry points to curb their excesses,” he said.

While the NDLEA struggles to find the weak links in its armour that allows drug traffickers to thrive, Jennifer’s four children would be wondering what kind of serious trouble their mother got herself into.