Okafor Emmanuel Junior, a former football player, was apprehended by agents from the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos, when he arrived from Sao Paulo, Brazil, via Addis Ababa on a flight operated by Ethiopian Airlines with 1.40kg of crack cocaine hidden in his bags.
The agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, said in a statement on Sunday, October 2, that the 33-year-old native of Arochukwu Local Government in Abia State was apprehended on Monday, September 26, 2022, after anti-narcotic officers found he had hidden the illegal substance in the handles of his bags and had padded the top edges of those bags with the class A drug.
Okafor said during a preliminary interview that he had previously played football with UNTH Enugu FC of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, where he spent four seasons before departing for Sri Lanka in 2014.
He added that he had played for two seasons in Sri Lanka before moving to Brazil, but that lack of official documents prevented him from furthering his football career there.
Ibeh Chinedu Damian, another returnee from Brazilian, was detained the same day he arrived at the Lagos airport from Sao Paulo.
Ibeh, who is from Ahiazu in the Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State, was caught hiding 3.20kg of black cocaine, or “Lucchi,” behind the flaps on each of his two bags.
According to Ibeh, upon successful delivery of the drug in Nigeria, he would receive a payment of three million, one hundred thousand naira (N3,100,000).
