| End of the road for
hard drug pushers
By Beifoh Osewele
Thursday, September 2, 2004
|
Cross-section
of drug traffickers paraded by NDLEA at Murtala Muhammed
International Airport, Ikeja, bowing their heads in
shame
PHOTO: WALE OLUFADE |
| |
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Wednesday paraded suspected
drug traffickers, among them a Pakistani who held his head
high.
Unlike his other 13 colleagues including two ladies who buried
their heads in shame, Ishaq Anwar Ahmed, 38, easily owned
up to his crime and even summoned courage to request that
he be heard. Ahmed, who was arrested with two kilogrammes
of heroin concealed in the false bottom of his hand luggage
on arrival at the Murtala Mohammed Airport aboard a Kenya
Airways plane said he was deceived into the illicit business.
He claimed a Pakistani friend of his, named Wajidshah in Penshawar
province had promised him employment with a Nigerian company.
The "Good Samaritan" allegedly arranged his visa
and work permit and even offered him a bag to pack his belongings,
unknown to him that it was a Greek gift. He was told to hold
a white handkerchief in his left hand with which he would
be identified and picked outside the arrival hall of the airport
to his intended workplace.
Rather than being picked up and driven to his workplace, Ahmed
has been cooling his heels at the NDLEA cell since August
15.
He believes he would have been saved the ordeal had the government
of his country lived up to its duty by providing job opportunities
for the people.
Like Ahmed, another suspect, Joseph Ejiofo (a.k.a Aina Babatunde
Vincent), 45, who was arrested August 23 enroute London said
he was introduced into the business following the collapse
of his second hand textile trade. The father of six who was
found to have swallowed 1.2000 kilogrammes of cocaine said
he was promised N500, 000 to ferry the dangerous powder across
the Atlantic. He claimed it was his first attempt.
"I cannot tell you this is how drug looks like. I was
dealing in second hand clothes and curtain before Customs
seized my goods. So I met a friend who gave me a parcel and
said if I can swallow it he would arrange for me to leave
Nigeria. Everybody knows that Nigeria is full of suffering.
The promise to send me overseas shak me. Again he promised
me N500, 000. That was big money. I have six children. I cannot
be alive and see my children dying. I’m not a rogue.
Nobody is a rogue in my family. I have no shame for what I
have done."
Other suspects included Ojeyinka Elijah Adeojo, 60, arrested
with 1.445 kg of heroine on his way to Paris. Ojeyinka who
had lived in the United States of America for so many years
before returning to Nigeria confessed that it was his desire
for economic empowerment that drove him into drug trafficking
though he knew it was a criminal act. The two ladies, Adebiyi
Tawakalitu Abeje, 48 and Oputa Belema, 45, were intercepted
with 1.115kg and 1.070 kg of cocaine respectively which they
had ingested.
Abeje who hails from Ilorin, Kwara State was arrested on her
way to London while Belema who was caught during an outward
clearance on August 13 claimed the drug belonged to a certain
Nigerian called "Doctor" and that one Shola would
have collected the drug from her in London.
Luck ran out on Ezekiel Olumide, 49, when he was caught with
1.2 kilogrammes of Cocaine concealed in his pair of shoes.
He accepted that the drug belonged to him, adding that he
imported it from Sao Paolo, Brazil.
Like Olumide, Ezekiel Emmanuel, a.k.a Mario DA Silva arrived
Nigeria aboard a South African airline from Johannesburg from
Sao Paolo with 2.210 kilogrammes of cocaine he bought from
one Ochuko who is based in Brazil.
Others were Obiakor Anthony Chukwuma, 26, Amah Anthony, 47,
Atuenyi Emmanuel, 29, Jimoh Abolaji Mohammed, Nwanoneze Prince
Nwatakwocha and Olalekan Kazeem Adisa, 53 and father of six
who told Daily Sun that though he was lured into it by "unsure
guarantee," he had no regret.
Alhaji Abdullahi Danburam, NDLEA boss at the airport said
the agency was determined to rid the country’s prime
gateway in particular and the nation in general of any drug
trafficking stigma.
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