Guinean-Nigerian Held With CANNABIS En-Route China Through Lagos

Chubuike Chukwu

Chubuike Chukwu, has been telling anti-narcotics operatives that he has nothing to do with a large cache of cannabis which was found in his luggage when he was arrested.

Chukwu, 30, says he has lived in Guinea for some years now and is married to a Guinean lady, and that their marriage is blessed with a child.

Chukwu arrived in Nigeria with a Guinean passport No R0175813 under the name Bah Ibrahim. He had been scheduled to board an Ethiopian Airline flight to China through Lagos. Apart from his luggage, Chukwu also had some auto parts in a separate luggage with which he had wanted to travel to the Asian nation. When passengers for the flight were asked to file out for the usual pre-departure procedures, Chukwu could not come forward for inspection as other passengers did. The suspicion of the antinarcotics agents became aroused.

At that point, Chukwu was asked to step aside for close observation. Lo and behold, inside the shock absorbers at the base of his luggage were found 1.070kg of dried weeds suspected to be cannabis. As is usual of suspects, Chukwu feigned ignorance of the illicit substance and claimed that he was only trying to help a friend deliver the luggage in China. But the anti-narcotics agents would not be fooled byChukwu’s antics.

NDLEA officials’ suspicion towards Chuwku grew when it was discovered that Chukwu arrived in Nigeria with a Guinean passport No R0175813 under the name Bah Ibrahim, as against his real name, which isChubuike Chukwu.

After intense interrogation, the Enugu State-born auto parts dealer owned up to his crime and claimed that he was actually going to China on a business trip when a close friend of his based in Guinea asked him to help in delivering the auto parts in the Asian nation as samples of some parts he intended to ship into Guinea. Chukwu, however, denied knowledge of the presences of cannabis in the luggage he carried for his so-called friend. NDLEA airport commander, Hamza Umar, said that the seizure was made based on suspicion.

I am in this mess because I had so much trust in a childhood friend who asked me to take some auto parts to China for him. I was given the parts by a friend to take to China.

The suspect begged NDLEA operatives to allow him say a word to his wife and kid before he faces music. “How I wish I could have a word with my wife and kid before I am whisked away because they are not in the know of what has befallen me now”, Chukwu lamented.

Chairman of the NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade, however, saw a silver lining in the fact that Chukwu was apprehended by Nigerian operatives. “I am happy that the suspect was detected here by my officers, otherwise he would have faced death penalty in China”, Giade said.