Nigeria: NDLEA Arrests Ojukwu’s Niece, 4 Others For Smuggling Cocaine From Brazil

Five people have been arrested and an operative of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) is believed to be under investigation over allegations of conspiring to import cocaine from Brazil.

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NDLEA staff Ali Baba Adamu began facing investigation after luggage abandoned at Muritala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos was found to contained more than two kilos of cocaine.

Four others facing interrogation include Ijeoma Ojukwu, a niece to late Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, and three others Victor Umeh, Uche Igwelo and Egbuche Fidelis Osiita.

Chief executive of NDLEA, Roli Bode-George, said the agency was “following every lead professionally and will exploit more opportunities towards getting every culprit arrested.

“We have also expanded the scope of our investigation and everyone involved in this illegal importation of narcotics shall be diligently prosecuted. The Agency will continue to uphold the rule of law and dislodge drug trafficking organisations in the country,” Roli stated.

First seizure
The cocaine seized at the Lagos airport is the first this year, said Ahmadu Garba, the agency’s commander at the airport.

The luggage, tagged for Agina Fidelis Ejike, was abandoned at the arrival hall during inward screening of passengers on an Emirates flight on December 28.

“On January 1, 2016, one Egbuche Fidelis Osita came with authority letter mandating him to collect the bag. In the process, some white powdery substance weighing 2.24kg that tested positive for cocaine was discovered,” said Garba.

“The drug was neatly packed in four parcels concealed in false bottom of four female handbags.”

Level of culpability
NDLEA says its preliminary investigations indicate Ijeoma Ojukwu, 48 and a mother of three, runs a restaurant in Brazil and is suspected to be a member of an international drug trafficking operation.

She is alleged to have conspired to collect the abandoned luggage from the airport in hopes of retrieving the cocaine before she was arrested.

Officials also impounded an Acura MDX said to have been driven to the airport by the suspects.

But Ojukwu has stated, “My brother came from Brazil and could not find his bag. It was in the process of trying to get the bag out that we were arrested.”

Uche Igwelo, 36, a public administration graduate, said she was invited by Ijeoma to assist in collecting the bag.

“I sell kitchen utensil and I am married with a child. Ijeoma met me that I should help him to collect a bag at the airport. We were trying to get the bag when NDLEA officers arrested us,” Uche, an Anambra native told investigators, according to an official statement from NDLEA.

Egbuche Fidelis Osita, a 37-year-old student said that he was asked to collect the bag. “I am a 400 level student studying English Education at the Ekiti State University. My friend Victor Umeh was the person that asked me to help in claiming a luggage at the airport.

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“We all drove to the airport where I was given a letter of authority and other documents of the passenger that came with the luggage. In the process of trying to collect the bag I was arrested. This is all I know about this incident,” Osita said.