Luck ran out for a certain Anukaenyi Bob-Manuel Ogochukwu who had just arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Nairobi, Kenya, when operatives of the NDLEA discovered he was carrying heroin wraps inside his body.
Addressing newsmen after the arrest, NDLEA spokeman Mr. Mitchell Ofoyeju said the suspect, who was carrying heroin weighing 1.115kg, was apprehended after testing positive for narcotic ingestion, SR writes.
Ahmadu Garba, NDLEA Commander at the Lagos Airport, said that the suspect, while under narcotic watch, excreted 66 wraps of powdery substance that tested positive for heroin.
Onitsha-based Ogochukwu, 43, explained that he smuggled drugs to save his four-year old son who was allegedly sick in Nairobi and needed medicare.
He said Tanzanian drug barons offered him $2,000 to smuggle the heroin from Kenya to Nigeria.
“I teach in a computer school at Onitsha, Anambra State,” he said. “This is my very first time of having anything to do with drugs. I smuggled drugs to save my sick child. The doctor said that my child has a hole in the heart. I met many people for help, but nobody was willing to help me except a drug baron.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Col Muhammad Mustapha Abdallah, said that there is no excuse for committing crime, adding that the suspect would be prosecuted accordingly.
“Drug trafficking is a criminal offence and the suspect will be charged accordingly,” Abdallah said.
“The suspect’s action only complicated his condition because he is here facing a criminal charge while the responsibility of taking care of his sick son now rest solely on the wife.”
Ogochukwu, who hails from Anambra State, is married to a Kenyan lady.
