Defence
THE National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has thwarted an attempt by a suspected human trafficker, Matthew Bassey, to export illicit drugs to Dubai, United Arab Emirate by planting the substance in the luggage of an orphan, Ms. Peter Gift Eno, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos.
According to a statement by the Agency’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi, yesterday, Eno was recruited for a phantom job in the UAE.
Babafemi said the 29-year-old Bassey, from Oron in Akwa Ibom state, was arrested on Wednesday following the interception of Eno at the departure hall of the Lagos airport.
He said when Eno’s luggage was searched, 50 parcels of cannabis (2.80kg) concealed in food items were discovered.
He also said discrepancies were observed in the age she declared and the date of birth on her international passport.
“Further interview reveals that the human trafficker who recruited and brought her to the airport, Matthew Bassey, was still lurking around the airport, waiting for her departure. He was promptly tracked and arrested.
“Investigations showed that the victim who hails from the same Oron LGA of Akwa Ibom State like Bassey recently lost her mother and as a result made it easy for Bassey to recruit her with the promise of securing her a job in Dubai, UAE. It was further discovered that the recruiter leveraged the victim’s naivety and planted drugs in her bag for onward delivery to his contact in Dubai,” Babafemi said.
He also said the desperate bid by another suspect, Aloysius Ajuruchukwu Onyekwe (aka Kelvin), to travel by road to Algeria through Sokoto State with 47 ingested wraps of cocaine in his stomach was frustrated by NDLEA operatives who intercepted him in Ibadan, Oyo State, following intelligence shared by the Department of State Security (DSS).
The statement reads, “Onyekwe, 26, who hails from Owerri West LGA, Imo state was arrested on Sunday 3rd July at Ojo park Ibadan where he went to board a vehicle enroute Sokoto to Algeria. He was traveling with an 18-year-old lady, Blessing Nwoke. The father of a 10-month-old child who passed out the 47 pellets of cocaine in five excretions confessed that he began his journey to Algeria from Cele area of Okota, Lagos where he ingested the illicit drug, weighing 1.1kg.
“Also in Oyo State, no fewer than 1,900 tablets of Tramadol 225mg were seized from a drug dealer, Mustapha Ijabula, 22, who was arrested in a Yola, Adamawa-bound commercial vehicle stopped for routine search along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
-The Nation
KN
Tags: Aloysius Ajuruchukwu Onyekwe DSS Femi Babafemi Matthew Bassey Mustapha Ijabula NDLEA Peter Gift Eno
