An Onitsha, Anambra State based-businessman, Ibeanusi Solomon Nosike, has excreted 68 wraps of cocaine after 12 days of excretion observation following his arrest at the local wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in the Ikeja area of Lagos State by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

The 36-year-old businessman was arrested in the early hours of Thursday, August 8, 2024, at the old domestic terminal of the Lagos airport while attempting to board the first flight out of Lagos to Abuja where he was scheduled to join a Qatar Airways flight to Vietnam at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja at about 10 a.m. the same day.

The NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, August 25.

Babafemi noted that the suspect, who came under NDLEA surveillance following intelligence, arrived in Lagos from his base in Onitsha, Anambra State on Wednesday, August 7, and lodged in a hotel where he swallowed the 68 wraps of cocaine before heading to the airport for a 6:30 a.m. flight the following morning.

Babafemi said the businessman was thereafter intercepted by NDLEA operatives who moved him into excretion observation where he spent 12 days excreting the cocaine pellets weighing 1.282 kilograms.

Businessman excretes 88 wraps of cocaine at Abuja airport

He recalled that another Vietnam-bound businessman, 54-year-old Paul Okwuy Mbadugha, was arrested by NDLEA operatives at the Abuja airport on Monday, August 12, during the outward clearance of Qatar Airways flight QR 1432 to Hanoi, Vietnam via Doha after he tested positive to ingestion of cocaine.

The spokesperson for the anti-drug agency said Mbadugha, after four days under observation, egested a total of 88 wraps of the illicit drug with a gross weight of 1.710 kilograms.

Babafemi added that another Onitsha-based businessman, Aligbo Chukwudi Jacob, was arrested by the anti-narcotic officers following the seizure of a consignment of 1.20kg cannabis concealed in a package going to Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

He noted that the operatives at the MMIA Strategic Command of the anti-drug agency had intercepted the shipment at the export shed of the Lagos airport, adding that investigations revealed the cargo was sent through a courier company in Onitsha, Anambra State.

The NDLEA spokesman said after a series of follow-up operations, Aligbo was eventually arrested in Onitsha on Saturday, August 17.

While commending the anti-narcotic officers for the arrests and seizures, the NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), enjoined them and their colleagues across the country to continue with the ongoing balanced approach to the drug control efforts of the agency.

The Star