The Madagascar trip of a 48-year-old Lagos-based commercial motorcyclist, Chinadu Onyechere, has ended in handcuffs at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, after his arrest by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for attempting to smuggle drugs into the country.
Onyechere, who had been a commercial motorcyclist popularly called Okada for over 15 years in Oko-Afo axis of Lagos, was nabbed by NDLEA officials with methamphetamine, a banned substance, concealed in his luggage.
The Okada rider was apprehended at the Terminal 2 arrival hall of the airport shortly after arriving on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Madagascar via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
A search of his checked-in backpack allegedly led to the recovery of 87 wraps of methamphetamine hidden inside clothes in the bag, in what NDLEA described as another successful interdiction operation.
In a statement released on Sunday by the NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, Chinadu told investigators that he had worked as a commercial motorcyclist in the Oko-Afo area of Lagos for about 15 years before he was allegedly recruited into drug trafficking by a friend based in Uganda.
He allegedly confessed that he ingested pellets of methamphetamine in Uganda before embarking on a journey intended for Madagascar, where he was to deliver the illicit consignment.
But on arrival in Madagascar, he disclosed that immigration authorities reportedly denied him entry, forcing his sponsor, identified as Ozor Igo, also said to be based in Uganda, to reroute his journey to Lagos, where he was eventually picked up by NDLEA operatives.
The suspect was said to have been unable to state the exact number of pellets he had swallowed, prompting officials to place him under excretion observation for three days.
According to the anti-drug agency, between the date of his arrest and July 1, he reportedly excreted 13 additional pellets, bringing the total number of wraps recovered from him to 100.
NDLEA said the total quantity of methamphetamine recovered from the suspect weighed 1.715 kilograms.
Chinadu is currently in custody as investigations continue into the suspected trafficking network behind the mission.