A 30-year-old fugitive, Uchenna Pascal, who was arrested by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) in possession of 13kg of cocaine, said he did not know how the contraband got into his luggage.
Pascal was first arrested in 2014 and his case is pending at the Federal High Court, Lagos, as he was released on bail. However, he jumped bail and has committed the same crime.
The NDLEA Commander at the airport, Garba Ahmadu, said the cocaine was concealed in shirts, explaining that Isaac was arrested on January 6, 2021, during the screening of passengers of an Ethiopian Airline from Brazil.
Ahmadu said, “The said Uchenna is a second time drug offender and also a fugitive wanted by the Federal High Court, Lagos, for jumping bail for a drug-related offence in 2014.”
One Azubuike Jeremiah Emeka was also arrested on the same flight with 7.8kg of cocaine concealed in clothing materials.
On the same day, one Abdul Musa, a freight forwarder, was arrested with 117g of cocaine destined for India at the SAHCO export cargo shed. It was concealed in a hair relaxer labelled “Ozone”.
Pascal in a chat with our correspondent, said he had a shop in Brazil where he sold toys and that for the two times he was arrested, he collected the luggage from a friend without verifying the content.
Asked why he jumped bail, he said, “According to my lawyer, they said they couldn’t extract the drugs from the towel. So I had no case. I have a guarantor, although I wasn’t feeling fine. I was in the village and my guarantor said they would close the case because there was no case.”
On how he got another international passport since he was already classified as “a flight risk” on account of the pending case, he said, “When they told me they had closed the case I had to go to the immigration office. I told them I had a case and that my international passport was seized, then they asked me what case it was and I told them it had been resolved.”
The commander said all the suspects would be charged to court soon.
