The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has apprehended 39-year-old Celestine Ikechukwu Okonkwo for excreting 70 wraps of cocaine worth 1.326kg upon arrival from Brazil at the international wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, NAA, in Abuja.
Mr Hamisu Lawan, the NDLEA Commander at the Airport, on Thursday said Okonkwo tested positive to cocaine.
His words, “the suspect tested positive to drug ingestion while returning from Sao Paulo, Brazil. He later excreted 70 wraps of cocaine weighing 1.326kg.”
Okonkwo who sells used clothes at the Idumota market in Lagos, while narrating his ordeal in the hands of drug barons, who took him to Brazil, said he was given the assurance that he will be given a white collar job abroad if he succeeded in the operation.
The suspect in a confessional statement disclosed that he was living happily until the drug barons approached him with a promise of a white collar job abroad.
Okonkwo affirmed, “I was in my shop at Idumota market where I sell used clothes. I will never forget the day a young man came to my shop to buy shirt. He told me he is from Anambra and that he lives in Brazil. He also promised to help me with a good job opportunity over there. Honestly, I was excited and felt it was answer to my age long prayer. He collected my phone number and left. This was how it all started.”
He added that upon his departure from the country, he was not informed about drug trafficking.
“Nobody discussed drug trafficking with me while in Nigeria. It was after I had lived in the church for some months that my sponsor located me in Sau Paulo. I was told that there is no free lunch in Brazil and that I have suffered and experienced difficult life in Brazil. This was the point they introduced drug trafficking as the only way out. They said that was what people do to make money. It took me about seven hours to swallow 70 wraps of cocaine. I was inexperienced because it was my first time. They promised to pay me N400,000 when I get to Nigeria,” Okonkwo said.
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