Two
events connected to Emmanuel Onedigbo, a drug courier, recently stunned
anti-narcotics agents at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA),
Ikeja, Lagos State.
Onedigbo, 25, was scheduled to travel to Pakistan via a Qatar
Airline airplane but inside his abdomen laid four big wraps of a banned
substance later discovered to be cocaine. During the usual pre-departure
screening, anti-narcotics agents singled him put, suspecting that he was
‘loaded’ with banned substance.
He was placed on observation where he was expected to excrete
the swallowed drugs. It was later observed that Onedigbo inserted four wraps of
the banned drugs in his anus.
Days after he had been placed on observation, Onedigbo could not
expel one of the wraps through his anus. It then became increasingly difficult
for him to expel the drugs, he started gasping for breath and was quickly given
medical attention. It is reported that Onedigbo would have died if he had
failed to expel the drug on time.
The view was shared by National Drug Law Enforcement Agency
(NDLEA) Airport Commander, Hamza Umar, who said, “officials at one point during
the process thought Onedigbo was going to die because the drugs he swallowed
got stuck.”
NDLEA officials soon found out that Onedigbo was not a first
time offender. He had already bagged three years jail term in Thailand for drug
related offences, which he completed in February, this year.
But the Anambra State-born drug courier also stunned officials
when he declared after finally expelling the substance that whether he was
jailed or not, he would still return to the drug business. He claimed there is
no job as rewarding as drug trafficking.
It was learnt that Onedigbo did not shy away from his guilt over
the illicit trade. While confessing to his crime, Onedigbo was quoted as saying
that he could not do any job aside couriering hard drugs to foreign land, which
according to him, ‘is a very lucrative and rewarding business.’
“It is true that I was deported in February 2013 after serving
three years jail term in Thailand.
Having completed the jail term I came back to the country and
looked around what I could lay my hands on that would be as rewarding as drugs,
but I did not see any. So, I went back into drug smuggling because there was
nothing for me to sustain myself,” he reportedly said. He claimed that he was
fed up with the economic crunch in Nigeria and decided to pursue wealth with
any means available to him.
He continued, “Life in Nigeria has remained unbearable. Nothing
you lay your hands on here comes to reality. But here is an opportunity to be
counted as a human being in the society.
That is why I chose to go into drugs and I say again that if
given another chance I will go into it again.” NDLEA Chairman, Alhaji Ahmadu
Giade, while commending his officers and men for their efforts at apprehending
the diehard courier, maintained that the time of trafficking in drugs is over
as perpetrators no longer have a hiding place in the country.
“It is very sad that a drug convict got involved in drug
trafficking few months after his release and deportation. This shows that he is
not remorseful. He shall be made to face the full wrath of the law upon
completion of investigations,” Giade added.
Source: National Mirror
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