Ex-Nigerian Footballer caught with drugs at Lagos Airport

The Nationwide Drug Regulation Enforcement Company (NDLEA) has arrested Okafor Emmanuel, an ex-footballer, on the Lagos airport over alleged cocaine trafficking.

In an announcement issued on Sunday, Femi Babafemi, NDLEA spokesperson, stated Emmanuel arrived on the Lagos airport from Sao Paulo, Brazil through Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on board an Ethiopian Airways flight with “1.40kg crack cocaine hid in his luggage”.

He stated anti-narcotic officers found that Emmanuel hid the illicit substance within the handles of his luggage and padded the highest edges of identical with the drug.

“Throughout preliminary interview, Okafor disclosed that he was an ex-footballer with the College of Nigeria Instructing Hospital, UNTH Enugu FC, the place he performed for 4 seasons earlier than leaving for Sri Lanka in 2014,” the assertion reads.

He additional acknowledged that he moved to Brazil from Sri Lanka after taking part in for 2 seasons however couldn’t advance his soccer profession in Brazil attributable to lack of official paperwork.”

Babafemi stated one other Brazilian returnee named Ibeh Chinedu Damian was arrested on the identical day upon arrival on the Lagos airport from Sao Paulo, Brazil through an Ethiopian Airways flight.

He stated Damian was discovered to have hid “3.20kg black cocaine popularly referred to as Lucci in false bottoms of his two luggage”.

In keeping with Babafemi, Damian stated he was to be paid N3.1 million on profitable supply of the drug to Nigeria.

In a associated improvement, Babafemi stated an try by Pamela Odin, a 32-year-old businesswoman, to move 2.150kg tablets of rohypnol by means of the Abuja airport to Istanbul, Turkey, was thwarted by NDLEA operatives.

He stated Odin was arrested on September 23, whereas trying to board a Turkish Airways flight with the drug hid inside pepper and packed amongst foodstuffs.

In keeping with Babafemi, Odin stated she operates a restaurant in Istanbul, Turkey however got here to Nigeria to see her relations and purchase meals gadgets for her restaurant enterprise.

The NDLEA spokesperson additionally stated two Malians, named Mohammed Demoele and Coulibaly Maliki, have been arrested by officers of the company’s marine unit at Ebute Ero jetty in Lagos for allegedly trying to export 34.2kg bottles of Akuskura, a brand new psychoactive substance, to Mali by means of Cotonou, Benin Republic.

Babafemi added that the company additionally arrested different suspects in separate raids throughout the nation.

“In Taraba state, operatives on Thursday twenty ninth Sept. intercepted 100 compressed blocks of Hashish Sativa weighing 73.500kg, hid inside animal feeds, whereas their counterparts in Ogun state on Saturday 1st October arrested a bodily challenged drug vendor, Abdulraham Mohammed, with 104kg of compressed Hashish Sativa recovered from him,” the assertion provides.

“One other suspect, Ms. Safiya Bello, was additionally arrested in Shagamu space of the state with 27kg of the psychotropic substance.”

He added that Buba Marwa, NDLEA chairman, counseled the officers for his or her efforts and urged them to “intensify ongoing offensive motion in opposition to drug cartels and traffickers wherever they could be positioned in any a part of Nigeria”.

-The Cable