THISDAY

Woman Ingests 80 Pellets of Cocaine to Raise N7m for IVF

- Michael Olugbode inAbuja

A businesswo­man Umrah (lesser Hajj) to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcemen­t Agency (NDLEA) at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Internatio­nal Airport, NAIA, Abuja after excreting 80 pellets of cocaine.

The woman, 46-year-old Mrs. Adisa Olayinka, who claimed to have engaged on the enterprise to raise N7 million for an In Vitro fertilizat­ion (IVF) operation as she could no more bear the shame of being in a marriage for 28 years without a child, said she was introduced to the “deal” when she last visited Saudi Arabia for Lesser Hajj.

According to the statement yesterday by the spokesman of NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, Olayinka was picked at the boarding/ screening area of the airport after she was suspected to have ingested hard drugs. She was subsequent­ly taken into custody where she excreted 80 pellets of the illicit drug between Wednesday and Saturday, 27th November.

The suspect, who was arrested at the boarding/screening area of the airport during an outward clearance of Qatar Airways flight 1418, claimed during interrogat­ion that she saved N2.5million over a period of one year to buy the drugs in bits from six different people at Akala, Mushin area of Lagos State.

The suspect further said she was trading in clothes but had to borrow N1 million from three persons to make up the money used to buy the drugs, adding that she spent another N1 million to renew her passport, visa and buy return flight tickets.

Olayinka said she was encouraged to traffic the drugs by a woman she met during her last Umrah trip to Saudi Arabia in 2019.

She added that she needed to raise N7 million for IVF treatment due to pressure from people because she has been married for 28 years without a child due to fertility challenges.

Meanwhile, another trafficker, Inusa Abdulrazak­i was arrested with 101 wraps of Heroin weighing 1.3 kilogramme­s on Friday 19th November at Gate C -Departure hall of the Murtala Muhammed Internatio­nal Airport, MMIA, Ikeja, Lagos on his way to Italy via Istanbul on Turkish Airlines.

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