A Nigerian businessman, Chijioke Nnanna Igbokwe has undergone surgery to remove 57 out of 81 cocaine pellets.
Gatekeepers News reports that operatives of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) arrested him at the arrival hall of Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos during the inward clearance of Ethiopian Airlines passengers on Sunday, 26 January 2025.
Femi Babafemi, NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy confirmed the incident in a statement on Sunday.
He noted that a body scan detected the illicit drugs in his system, leading to his detention for excretion observation.
Investigations revealed that the Igbikwe who claimed to be a clothing trader in Oshodi, Lagos, had travelled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on January 22.
He ingested 81 wraps of cocaine on 23 January before boarding a flight to Beirut, Lebanon, where he was expected to deliver the drugs for $3,000.
NDLEA said, “After five days under excretion observation, he could only expel 24 pellets following initial medical intervention at the Agency’s medical facility and the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) Ikeja.”
“With the clock ticking for him and the complication of other underlying medical conditions, the suspect was eventually admitted at the tertiary facility where he had to undergo exploratory laparotomy to extract the remaining 57 wraps of cocaine stuck in his stomach after his wife and brother endorsed the necessary consent forms on Thursday, 30th January.”
