The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has arrested one Okey Eze, who claims to be a tiler by profession, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja with three hundred and fifty wraps of cocaine worth over two point three billion naira in street value.
The thirty eighty year- old Eze, from Oji-River, in Oji-River Local Government area of Enugu State was arrested during an inward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian airline flight number 911 enroute Bamako-Addis Ababa- Abuja.
The illicit drug weighing seven point seventy kilograms was concealed in eight packs tucked in different parts of his luggage.
In his confession, Eze, a resident of Bamako, Mali, who said he traveled to Mali through Seme border in Badagry, Lagos state since 2019 claimed that he came into Nigeria with the drug because he needed to raise money to take care of his late elder brothers’ four children.
The suspect claimed his friend resident in Brazil who he had asked to assist him with some money declined but instead told him to pick up a bag with the drugs from a friend of his in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for a fee of five hundred thousand naira on successful delivery to someone whose contact would be sent to him on arrival in Nigeria adding that the bag containing the drugs was given to him that morning at Addis Ababa airport
In his reaction, the Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, retired Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa, commended the Commander, officers and men of the NAIA command for their vigilance.
He said the new NDLEA under his leadership would continue to deal decisive blows on the various cartels trying to turn Nigeria into a hub of illicit drugs.
