By Abiodun Sanusi
Two businessmen who were arrested by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja for cocaine ingestion have both excreted a total of 193 pellets of the drug after three days in observatory custody.
The traffickers, Onoh Ebere, 49, and Christian Ifeanyi, 47, were intercepted at the Abuja airport on May 10 upon their arrival from Uganda via Addis Ababa, onboard Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 951.
The spokesman of the anti-narcotics agency, Femi Babafemi, who revealed this in a statement on Sunday, noted that though both suspects have businesses in Nigeria, their main source of income has been drug trafficking.
Babafemi said, “They both travelled to Uganda and from there crossed over to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where they picked the consignments before returning to Abuja with Lagos as their final destination.
“After days in the excretion room, Ebere Onoh excreted a total of 100 pellets weighing 2.137kgs while Christian Ifeanyi expelled 93 pellets hidden in his stomach with a gross weight of 1.986kgs,” Babafemi disclosed.
The NDLEA spokesman also informed that the agency’s operatives raided two notorious drug joints – Zaro bunk in Bama Road, Sabon Gari and the Sani Abacha Indoor Stadium, both situated within the Kano metropolis where a total of 160 suspects were arrested with different quantities of illicit substances.
Similarly, two suspects – Abubakar Sallau, 55, and Nazifi Abdullahi, 25, were arrested on Saturday, May 13, along the Kano-Maiduguri road, with 5,000 pills of Tramadol 200mg; while a total of 65,200 tablets of tramadol and exol-5 were seized from the duo of Adamu Nagati, 30, and Ali Nasiru, 35.
Operatives in Abuja in separate raids across Tora Bora, Gwarinpa village, Third Avenue in Gwarinpa, Karamo, Garki market, Sabon Gari Bwari and New Kuchigoro IDP camp, within the FCT, arrested 25 suspects.
Babafemi further revealed that another bid to smuggle into Lagos a consignment of 24kgs cannabis indica concealed in imported used cars from Canada was again frustrated by NDLEA operatives who seized the illicit substance on Thursday, May 11, during a joint 100 per cent examination of a container marked, MSMU 7412069, at the Prime Connection Bonded terminal, off Oshodi-Apapa expressway.
“Two clearing agents linked with the container, Chief G.O. Njokwu and Mr Christopher Obialor have been arrested in collaboration with men of the Nigerian Customs Service,” he added.
Originally published at Punch