A Canada-based Nigerian nurse, identified as Usman Grace Khadijat Olami and two businessmen, identified as Ihejirika Emmanuel and Iwuagwu Victory, have been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency for alleged drug trafficking.
Ihejirika, who frequently travels to Thailand, claiming to import fish into Nigeria, was arrested on October 15, 2024, while attempting to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Thailand via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
A statement by the agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday, stated that when Ihejirika was taken for a body scan, the result showed he had ingested illicit drugs, which were later confirmed to be cocaine.
Babafemi added, “As a result, he was placed under excretion observation during which he expelled five big egg-sized wraps of cocaine weighing 400 grams. In his statement, the 51-year-old suspect confessed that he was to be paid upon successful delivery of the drug consignment in Thailand. He said he needed the money to boost his fish importation business.”
Babafemi noted that Victory was arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja Lagos, after coming from Brazil via Addis Ababa during the inward clearance of passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
He said a body scan conducted on the 26-year-old businessman revealed that he ingested drugs, adding that he subsequently excreted a pellet of cocaine weighing 22 grams.
Babafemi said, “He, however, confessed that he ingested 30 wraps of the illicit drug in Brazil but excreted 29 pellets in Addis Ababa, where he handed them over to another person. The suspect revealed that he was to be paid N2.5 million for trafficking the drug.”
Babafemi also said the Nigerian-Canadian nurse, Olami, was arrested on October 4 by the NDLEA officers at the Lagos airport during the inward clearance of Air France passengers from Toronto, Canada via Paris.
During a search of her luggage, Babafemi said 70 parcels of Canadian Loud, weighing 35.70kg were recovered from her.
“During her interview, she claimed she was in Nigeria to meet her boyfriend who instructed her to come with the large consignment of the highly sought-after synthetic cannabis.
