Ahmadu Giade

THE National Drug Law Enforcement Agency is currently investigating the claim of a drug suspect, Macaulay Oguke, that he was forced to swallow 65 wraps of heroine at gunpoint by a stranger. Oguke allegedly made the claim recently following his arrest at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, while trying to board a flight to Monrovia, the Liberian capital. The imagemaker of the anti- drugs agency, Mitchel Ofoyeju, stated that the 53-year-old Nigerian trader, who has been residing in Liberia for five years, claimed he swallowed the drugs under duress, saying his involvement in the trade was a mystery to him. “It is a very painful experience to me because I used to tell people not to get involved in drug trafficking. I am indebted to a man in Liberia. I have paid some of the debt; it remains $1,000. When he learnt that I was in Nigeria, he called me that his brother would give me a parcel to be delivered to him in Liberia. The day I was to leave my village in Imo State, I got a call from a man who claimed to be his brother. That was how we began talking until I got to Lagos,” stated Oguke The suspect stated that, he was in Nigeria to bury his late father who passed on recently. “I am a businessman in Liberia. I sell motorcycle parts and ladies weave-on. My pregnant wife and child live in Nigeria. Though I visit home regularly, my purpose of coming this time was for the funeral rites of my father.” He said his trouble, however, began at Mile 2, Lagos, when he met the man to take the parcel he had for his brother. Oguke said, “He took me to the back of a big building. I got the greatest shock when he brought out the drugs and a plate of soup and pulled out a gun and ordered me to swallow the drugs. He threatened to kill me if I should shout. That was how I began swallowing the drugs. In the process I began to vomit. When he noticed I could no longer swallow, he counted the remaining wraps and said I had taken 65 wraps. “He told me not to ask any question that when I get to Liberia, his brother would collect the drug and settle me accordingly. He then took me to the airport. I am totally disorganised because I am the pillar of my family.” Meanwhile,preliminary findings by the NDLEA revealed that the drug suspect has established link with his sponsors and the position of the agency was that if Oguke did not know about the deal he would have alerted the NDLEA or security agencies at the airport. According to the anti-drug agency, “ordinarily, if the suspect had reported the incident to drug law enforcement officials, he would have been treated as a victim and allowed to go after he must have excreted the drugs. That is the position of the law, but by keeping silent and proceeding on the trip, knowing that he had drugs on him showed he has a case to answer,”. The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade, who confirmed the arrest, wondered how a 53-year-old man would be asked to swallow narcotics at gunpoint. “There may be some understanding between the suspect and his sponsors if truly he was asked to ingest the drugs under duress. As investigators, we are definitely going to unravel the motive behind the criminal act. This is an interesting case and we shall get to the bottom of it and let the court determine the true position.”