A 43-year-old pastor with Gospel
Faith Mission International, Olayemi Assembly, Ipaya Lagos State has been
arrested by operatives National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) as he was
returning from Ministers’ Conference in Uganda.
The pastor, Daniel Lanre Akintola,
was found with 1.978kg of heroin concealed in a false bottom of his luggage.
Akintola’s arrest came weeks after another Lagos-based pastor was arrested for
smuggling narcotics to South Africa at the Lagos Airport.
Akintola was arrested at the Akanu
Ibiam International Airport (AIIA). Another suspect, Onwuegbusi Tochukwu
Victor, 48, was also found with 51.5kg of ephedrine inside his luggage.
Akintola who claimed ownership of
the bag containing heroin said that he was returning from a pastor’s
conference.
He said: “I’m a pastor with Gospel
Faith Mission International, Olayemi Assembly, Ipaya Lagos. I attended a
minister’s conference in Uganda. This bag where heroin was found is my bag but
I’m pastor and not a drug trafficker!”
NDLEA spokesman, Mitchel Ofoyeju,
said that the suspect who lives in Lagos could not produce evidence that he
actually attended a minister’s conference in Uganda. “Besides, he also did not
give any reason for leaving Entebbe, Uganda en-route Addis Ababa to Enugu,”
said Ofoyeju.
The NDLEA commander at the Enugu
Airport, Mr. Nsikak-Abasi Udoh said that Akintola wanted to abandon his luggage
at the arrival hall for fear of arrest.
Udoh said: “Akintola unlawfully
possessed 1.978kg of heroin while returning from Entebbe, a major town in
Central Uganda. He wanted to abandon the luggage but we detected his intention.
The drug was carefully concealed in a false bottom of his luggage. The second
suspect is a businessman who had parcels of ephedrine weighing 51.5kg which he
wanted to smuggle to Maputo, Mozambique. The suspects are being investigated.”
Onwuegbusi said that he was asked to
take the bag of ephedrine to Mozambique for a fee of 2,500 dollars.
“I’m a business man but after customs seized
my goods, I became stranded. They paid my return ticket and promised that the
person that would receive the bag in Maputo will give me 2,500 dollars. I would
have invested the money in import business.”
It will be recalled that the
resident pastor of the Eternal Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim at
Agodo-Egbe, Ikotun Lagos was recently arrested over unlawful exportation of 174
kilogrammes of narcotic drugs to South Africa. The suspect, Prophet Michael
Raji was arrested following the interception of the drug at the cargo section
of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) during pre-shipment
examination.
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