The ultra-mordern Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja has suddenly become the new preferred point of depature for Nigeria’s notorious narco-trafficking syndicate following increased surveillance operations being mounted by eagle-eyed officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (N.D.L.E.A).
However, the more advanced scanning equipment, compared with the busier facilities at the Murtala Mohammed International in Lagos, is making it harder to have any pass at all.
Two such drug couriers who were busted at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport on Monday said that the barons behind their trips and packaging had advised them to go through Abuja, as the Lagos end was still very hot following the arrest of famous comedia, Babatunde Omidina, a.k.a. Baba Suwe, about 20 days ago, while trying to board an Air France flight to Paris.
What the drug syndicate do not realize is that Nigeria has a new Sherriff in town and things have changed in terms of ports patrol and security, not only because the new crop of leaders want a better and greater image for their country, they are also wary of terrorists.
Nnoli Valentine, 41, a Nigerian who lives in Germany ingested some 99 wraps of a substance thought to be cocaine. He was arrested while trying to board a KLM flight to Amsterdam, Holland.
Onyeagbunam Patrick, 25, was also caught with 67 wraps ingested cocaine. He was caught while arriving from Sao Paulo, Brazil. The airport commander of NDLEA, Hamisu Lawal, disclosed to journalists that the agency has scanning machines in all the country’s international airports.
Said the commander, “We are ready to stop drug traffickers at the Abuja airport. All our airports are equally equipped with the 3D scanning machines and it was a wrong calculation by the suspects to have opted for Abuja airport. This arrest will serve as a warning to others that it is difficult for them to traffick drugs through this route.”