NDLEA arrests Canada based nurse, businessman for drug trafficking

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have arrested two businessmen, identified as Ihejirika Emmanuel and Iwuagwu Victory, over 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 results 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 large, egg-sized wraps of cocaine weighing 400 grams. In his statement, the 51-year-old suspect confessed that he was to be paid upon the 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 arriving 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 had ingested drugs, adding that he subsequently excreted a pellet of cocaine weighing 22 grams.

Babafemi stated, “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 ₦2.5 million for trafficking the drug.”

Babafemi also said a Nigerian-Canadian nurse, identified as Usman Grace Khadijat Olami, was arrested on October 4 by NDLEA officers at Lagos airport during the inward clearance of Air France passengers arriving from Toronto, Canada, via Paris.

During a search of her luggage, Babafemi said a total of 70 parcels of Canadian Loud, weighing 35.70 kg, were recovered from her