56-year-old widow nabbed with cocaine in footwears at Lagos airport

Ajisegiri Kehinde Sidika, a 56-year-old widow and mother of four, has been arrested over her attempt to traffic 400grams of cocaine concealed in her footwear to Makkah, Saudi Arabia.

Sidika was arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja.

The suspect who claims to be a businesswoman trading in adult and children’s wear on Lagos Island was intercepted on Sunday 13th November while trying to board a Qatar Airways flight going to Saudi Arabia via Doha.

Upon a critical examination of the pair of sandals she was wearing, two parcels of cocaine weighing 400grams were recovered from them.

In another operation, anti-narcotics officers attached to the SAHCO export shed of the airport foiled attempts by traffickers to smuggle consignments of cannabis and ecstasy tablets concealed in three tubers of yam going to Dubai, UAE on Wednesday 17th Nov.

The freight agent who presented the yams for export, Inegbu Ugochi Akunna was promptly arrested while the consignor, Ahmodu Sulaimon was also nabbed thereafter.

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Also at the Brawal container shed of Kirikiri lighter terminal in Lagos, NDLEA operatives intercepted cartons of deadly drinks in a container marked APZU3671697 during a joint examination with Customs. Though the bill of lading indicated that the container originated from Cape town, South Africa, a search of the shippers’ database showed it was loaded from Antwerp, Belgium. A full inspection of the container on Thursday 18th Nov showed a total of five cartons of beverages labeled as Euphoria cannabis beer and three cartons of cannabis energy drink were found. Other drinks in the container include 21 cartons of a drink labeled as monkey shoulder; 20 cartons of dead man’s finger; and 139 of champagne fruit, among others.

In Niger state, NDLEA operatives on a stop and search operation along Mokwa-Jebba road on Saturday 12th Nov. arrested two suspects; Ismail Musa and Jidda Abbas with 10,780 bottles of Akuskura, a new psychoactive substance concealed inside two Toyota Camry saloon cars marked AGL 861 GS Lagos and KMK 118 SC Bayelsa.

The consignment loaded in Ibadan, Oyo state, was going to Abuja for distribution.

NDLEA operatives also intercepted 25,000 capsules of Tramadol in Plateau and arrested the owner, Ifeanyi Nweanwe, a beer parlor operator in a follow-up operation in Bauchi.

Pharmaceutical opioids worth more than N30 million were also intercepted in a commercial bus in Asaba, Delta state on Thursday 18th Nov.

In his reaction to the arrests and seizures in the past week, the Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), CON, OFR, commended the officers for their passion, commitment, and remarkable efforts to get results in their areas of responsibility.

He enjoined them and their compatriots across the country to stay focused and resilient in the pursuit of the Agency’s corporate goal.