Two women were apprehended by the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) with 2.635kg of cocaine at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos.
The cocaine, which was meant to be exported to China, was inserted in the women’s vaginas, while some was packed in their underwear and others ingested.
In statement signed by Mitchell Ofoyeju, the NDLEA spokesman, made available to Leadership, the women were about to board a Qatar Airways flight to China before they were apprehended.
Two women caught with cocaine
According to both women, they were abandoned by their husbands, hence the decision to smuggle cocaine.
Giving their statements, one of the women, Chukwujekwu Chinyere Priscilla said she is married to a soldier, who abandoned her 10 years ago when he retired from the army
According to her, she is a businesswoman. It all started when she met a man at the market who promised to assist her in her business by making her an importer.
“He gives me recharge cards and money to sustain myself. It was the day I was to travel that he told me that I will take drugs to China. He took me to a hotel where I was given the drugs and six thousand dollars to buy my goods in China. I could only swallow ten wraps, so I forced some in my vagina and packed others in my underwear,” she said.
The second woman, Alaka Deburah Uzoma said: “I sell female bags and shoes to sustain myself and my children. My husband left me in 2005 and since then I have been facing several challenges. I took loan to travel to China and in the process I incurred huge debt which compounded my problems. At a point, I had no money for food, school fees and even house rent. This was what made me to smuggle drugs.
“I swallowed 59 wraps of drugs all through the night because of 6,000 dollars. I also packed some in my underwear and one in my vagina. It was a terrible experience. I feel so sad that I have to end up this way as a Christian.”
Hamza Umar, the agency commander at the Lagos airport, described the suspects as desperate traffickers, although Ahmadu Giade, the chairman an chief executive of the NDLEA, described the women’s action as disgraceful.
He pointed out that the women would have faced capital punishment for drug trafficking in China, if it had not been detected here in Nigeria, adding that their arrest had saved them from death.
He said they would soon be charged to court.
With execution as the penalty for drug trafficking in China, the arrest may have prevented the women from being caught by the Chinese authorities which could have led to them facing execution in China a few weeks after the Indonesian government executed some Nigerians for drug trafficking.
