Drug trafficker extretes 70 wraps of cocaine while in custody

 A suspected drug trafficker has told officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency how he ended up attempting to smuggle cocaine into Nigeria from Brazil.

Celestine Okonkwo, who was returning from Sao Paulo, was arrested at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, after he tested positive to cocaine ingestion.

The suspect later excreted 70 wraps of cocaine weighing 1.326 kilogramme, according to Hamisu Lawan, NDLEA commander at the airport.

Mr. Okonkwo told investigators that he sold used clothes at Idumota market, in Lagos, before he was lured abroad with a promise of better job.

“I will never forget the day a young man came to my shop to buy shirt,” said Mr. Okonkwo, 39. “He told me he is from Anambra and that he lives in Brazil. He also promised to help me with a good job opportunity over there.

“Honestly, I was excited and felt it was answer to my age-long prayer. He collected my phone number and left. This was how it all started.”

Three months later, according to the suspect, the man called to inform him he had prepared an international passport and also secured a travel visa.

“Then he told me to get set to travel any time,” Mr. Okonkwo said. “Few weeks later, he brought my ticket and I travelled to Brazil in January 2015

“He gave me the name of the hotel where I will stay pending when he will get me a job. I was eventually abandoned to suffer. When I exhausted my money, I began to sleep in a church. I also began to work for a Nigerian woman who owns a restaurant in order not to starve to death.”

The suspect stated that drug trafficking was not originally discussed with his supposed benefactor before he left Nigeria.

“Nobody discussed drug trafficking with me while in Nigeria,” Mr. Okonkwo said.

“It was after I had lived in the church for some months that my sponsor located me in Sao Paulo. I was told that there is no free lunch in Brazil and that I have suffered and experienced difficult life in Brazil.

“This was the point they introduced drug trafficking as the only way out. They said that was what people do to make money. It took me about seven hours to swallow 70 wraps of cocaine. I was inexperienced because it was my first time. They promised to pay me N400,000 when I get to Nigeria.”

Mr. Okonkwo said he regretted his actions, more so as he had ended up disappointing his wife and daughter who are living with his parents in the village.

“God bless Nigeria,” he said. “There is no poverty here except the person chooses to be poor.”
Ahmadu Giade, chairman of NDLEA, said Mr. Okonkwo’s story should serve as a warning to those seeking to travel out of the country in a hurry.

“There is nothing wrong in seeking greener pastures but people must be properly guided,” said Mr. Giade.

“Travelling out of the country without money to pay for your accommodation and feeding is ill-advised. Those who promise job opportunities abroad are after their selfish interest.”

Mr. Giade also added that his agency is determined to investigate and expose Mr. Okonkwo’s sponsors.

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28 children killed by lead poisoning in Nigeria

Nigerian health officials say 28 children have been killed by lead poisoning from illegal gold mining in a remote west-central village. Dozens more are sick.

The outbreak is in the same region where doctors still are treating children from a 2010 mass poisoning in Zamfara state that killed 400 kids and left many paralyzed and blind because of delays in government funding for a cleanup.

Doctors Without Borders said Friday it has cured half the 5,500 infected there and has started closing clinics.

Junior Health Minister Fidelis Nwankwo said Thursday all those newly infected in neighboring Niger state are under 5 with a 43 percent fatality rate. He says they have started treatment.

It's not known when a clean-up is planned. Villagers also have to learn safe mining practices.

AP

12 dead after Boko Haram attack Maiduguri

At least six civilians and six members of a youth vigilante group were killed in an attack by Boko Haram militants on Nigeria's northeastern city Maiduguri, two military sources said on Thursday.

The attack was reported late on Wednesday in Maiduguri, which is the capital of Borno state and the birthplace of the Islamist jihadi group.

One of the sources said the vigilantes in the so-called civilian joint taskforce died after they mistook female suicide bombers for residents fleeing the Boko Haram raid.

Boko Haram, which has killed thousands in its attempt to carve out an Islamist state in the country's northeast, is on the backfoot foot following a co-ordinated offensive by military forces from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

However, Wednesday's assault shows it is still capable of pulling off bloody assaults.

Defence spokesman Major General Chris Olukolade said the insurgents began their attack on the outskirts of Maiduguri with the detonation of two female suicide in Ladi Kayamla area.

He said the attack was likely intended as a diversion to "slow down the ongoing assault on the Sambisa forest, it was carried out by those insurgents escaping from locations that have been destroyed".

Boko Haram has become scattered across Borno, but maintains a final stronghold in the Sambisa forest reserve. Nigeria began a ground assault on the area in April and said it has overrun many camps and freed over 700 abducted women and children.

The army imposed a 24 hour curfew on Maiduguri following the attack.

Reuters

Former Nigeria Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi comments on audit that proves missing $18.5 billion

A former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Lamido Sanusi, has reacted to the recent audit report by PricewaterhouseCoopers on the alleged missing $20 billion oil money, saying the report has confirmed in the first instance that at least $18.5 billion was indeed missing.

Mr. Sanusi faulted the petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, who said the report had exonerated the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, earlier accused of diverting the money.

In an opinion article published by the Financial Times of London, Mr. Sanusi, who is now the Emir of Kano, said the argument that the outstanding amount was used by the NNPC for apparently unlawful purposes such as kerosene subsidy, does not dismiss the notion that the NNPC illegally withheld billions of oil dollars from the government.

“Contrary to the claims of petroleum minister Diezani Alison-Madueke, the audit report does not exonerate the NNPC. It establishes that the gap between the company’s oil revenues between January 2012 and July 2013 and cash remitted to the government for the same period was $18.5bn,” Mr. Sanusi said.

The former CBN governor said of the $18.5bn in revenues that the state oil company did not send to the government according to PwC, “about $12.5bn appears by my calculations to have been diverted”.

“And this relates only to a random 19-month period, not the five-year term of Mr Jonathan, the outgoing president,” he wrote.

As CBN governor, Mr. Sanusi had accused the NNPC of failing to pay about $20 billion in oil revenue to the government between 2012 and 2013.

The government denied any money was missing, even before an investigation. Mr. Sanusi was later fired by President Goodluck Jonathan.

On his suspension by the president, Mr. Sanusi said he had made it clear that “you can suspend a man, but you cannot suspend the truth”.

The publication of the PwC audit report into the missing billions, he said, has brought the nation a step closer to the truth.

He said the report has suggested lines for further investigation into the matter, and urged the Buhari government to follow the leads and ensure anyone found culpable is punished.

“Nigerians did not vote for an amnesty for anyone,” he said. “The lines of investigation suggested by this audit need to be pursued. Any officials found responsible for involvement in this apparent breach of trust must be charged.”

Mr. Sanusi noted the various duplicated expenses, unsubstantiated costs, computation errors and tax shortfalls listed in the report against the NNPC.

The former CBN governor said although PwC report concluded that a significant part of the unremitted funds were used to finance kerosene subsidy, such decision lacked presidential approval as former President Umaru Yar’Adua had stopped kerosene subsidy at the time.

In spite of the subsidy claims for which NNPC withheld $3.4 billion for the period, Mr. Sanusi said Nigerians were still made to pay an average of N120 and N140 per litre of kerosene, far more than the supposed subsidised price of N50.

“I have consistently held that this (subsidy of kerosene claim by NNPC) was a scam that violated the constitution and siphoned off money from the treasury,” the former CBN chief said.

On the transfer of oil assets belonging to the federation to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, the upstream petroleum industry subsidiary of the NNPC, Mr. Sanusi expressed regrets that his removal did not allow him conclude the investigation he was doing on that transaction.

He said although the NPDC paid about $100 million for the assets, from which it had extracted crude valued at $6.8 billion, it had only paid about $1.7 billion as tax and royalties for the period under review.

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Bomb blast victims of Boko Haram attack in Abuja wage peaceful protest against Nigerian government

The Abuja bomb blast victims on Wednesday carried out a peaceful protest at the National Assembly to urge the Federal Government to fulfil its promises to them.

It is recalled that government had promised to foot the medical bills of the blasts which killed more than 100 people in Abuja.

The victims, who converged on the premises of the National Assembly, carried placards with different inscriptions expressing their anger, some of which read:

"It has been 10 months and nothing has been done for us; most of us still have medical challenges’’ and ``We are dying slowly, we need government support.’’

Some of the victims that they could not do follow up treatments in the hospitals.

The Coordinator of the group, Mr Arthur Vav, told NAN that they wanted the Federal Government to reopen their medical files in the hospitals for follow-up treatments.

Vav said most of the victims had undergone series of surgical operations, while some still had sharp objects lodged in their bodies that needed to be removed but could not afford the cost of treatment.

"The last bomb blast was June 25 which would be one year next month, while Nyanya already was one year April 14, since then we have been paying most of our medical bills.

"The government paid some bills for us but I strongly believe there are supposed to be a follow-ups after you have been discharged from the hospital.

"This is because when you get back to your house, you find out some sharp objects in the body and you discover you still need some medical treatment,’’ he said.

Vav said the group had written to the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), the President of the Senate and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation but received no response.

He said the peaceful demonstration was to express their grievances.

"We have been neglected by the government because for one year now nothing has been done,’’ he said.

Mr Thomas Aduche, another member of the group, said they were left to fate without any support from the government.

Aduche said he paid for the last operation carried out on his neck and pleaded with the government to empower them as most of them had lost their jobs.

Two women who lost their husbands, Mrs Favour Ndubisi and Mrs Sarah Andy called on government to empower them to enable them to take care of their children.

"I am a qualified teacher but due to the lack of job I teach in private school where the salary is very small; if government will employ me, I will be happy,’’ Ndubisi said.

Mr Victor Dike, representing the Sergeant-At-Arms for the Senate, who addressed the group promised to look into their case.
Dike told NAN that the group wrote a letter to the Senate last two weeks and did not follow up to know the outcome.


"I promise to look for the solution to their problem through the letter they submitted and once we get the letter I will tell them the action they have taken on the letter and that is the normal procedure.

"They just submitted their letter two or three weeks ago and have not followed up the letter only to come for demonstration, it is not okay,’’ he said.

News24