By Adedapo Adesanya
The operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested an ex-footballer, Okafor Emmanuel Junior, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport with 1.40kg of crack cocaine concealed in his bags.
The 33-year-old was arrested on Monday on his arrival from Sao Paulo, Brazil via Addis Ababa, on board an Ethiopian airline flight after anti-narcotic officers discovered he concealed the illicit substance in the handles of his bags and padded the top edges of the same with the class A drug.
According to the agency, Mr Okafor revealed that he was an ex-footballer with the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Enugu FC, where he played for four seasons before leaving for Sri Lanka in 2014.
He further stated that he moved to Brazil from Sri Lanka after playing for two seasons but could not advance his football career in Brazil due lack of official documents.
Meanwhile, another Brazilian returnee, Mr Ibeh Chinedu Damian, was arrested the same day upon his arrival at the Lagos airport from Sao Paulo, Brazil via an Ethiopian airlines flight.
Mr Ibeh was found to have concealed 3.20kg of black cocaine, popularly known as Lucci, in the false bottoms of his two bags.
In his statement, he said he was to be paid N3.1 million for the successful delivery of the drug in Nigeria.
In the same vein, an attempt by a 32-year-old businesswoman, Mrs Pamela Odin, to traffic 2.150kg tablets of Rohypnol through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, NAIA, Abuja to Istanbul, Turkey has been thwarted by NDLEA operatives.
The mother of one was arrested on Friday while attempting to board a Turkish airline flight with the drug concealed inside some pepper and packed among foodstuff.
She disclosed that she operates a restaurant in Istanbul, Turkey but came to Nigeria to see her relatives and buy food for her restaurant business.
Dipo Olowookere