Attempt by 26-year-old Esther Onyinyechi Uzodinma, a 200-level student of nursing at the Noida International University, Uttar Pradesh, India, to swallow 76 wraps of cocaine hours before her return flight to the South Asian country has been thwarted by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA.
Esther was scheduled to return to Delhi, India, through the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, MAKIA, Kano, but was arrested at Royal Park Hotel Sabon Garin Kano, as while awaiting the cocaine consignment she was to ingest before her flight the following morning.
Her lid was blown open when NDLEA operatives on patrol along Okene-Lokoja highway in Kogi state intercepted 31-year-old Cosmas Okorie in a commuter bus coming from Lagos enroute Kano.
Inside his black polythene bag was an audio speaker, which was used to conceal 76 pellets of cocaine weighing 1.340 kilograms, which he was going to deliver to Esther in Kano. A swift follow up operation in Kano led to the arrest of the female nursing university student later same day.
In her statement, Esther claimed the drug cartel she was working for recruited her in India and paid for her trip to Nigeria to enjoy her Christmas and New Year holidays. To avoid her parents knowing she was in Nigeria, Esther did not travel to her home state, Imo but was lodged for two weeks in a hotel in Enugu, from where she was flown to Abuja and then Kano where she was lodged at Royal Park Hotel to swallow the 76 pellets of cocaine sent to her from Lagos before taking her Qatar Airways flight to India on Friday morning.
She said she was promised over $5,000 upon successful delivery of the illicit consignment in India.
Samuel Ogbu, 24, was nabbed with 25,000 pills of tramadol by operatives along Wukari- Zaki Ibiam road, Wukari LGA, Taraba state.
In series of raids in Abuja, a suspect, Rufa’i Hashimu, 27, was arrested at Gwarimpa village area of the FCT with 118 bottles of codeine-based syrup, while 13 others were nabbed in other locations such as: Area1 IDP camp, Gishiri, Zuba, Dei -Dei, AYA, Lagos Street Garki, Karu, and Lugbe. Recovered from them include different quantities of tramadol, diazepam, and methamphetamine.
With the same vigour, Commands and formations of the Agency across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, sensitization activities to schools, worship centres, work places and communities among others in the past week. These include: WADA sensitisation lecture to students and staff of NUD Basic Primary School, Orile-Igbon, Oyo state; Corpus Christi College, Ilawe Ekiti; Holy Family International Schools, Calabar; Kudam Islamic School, Osogbo; Business Apprenticeship Training Centre, Kankia, Katsina, while Abia state command of NDLEA paid a WADA advocacy visit to Governor Alex Otti, among others.
While commending the officers and men of Lagos, Kogi, SOPU, Kano, Kwara, FCT, and Taraba Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) urged them and their compatriots across the country not to rest on their oars as they intensify their balanced approach to drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts.
