Christian Ifeanyi Ogbuji, a 48-year-old businessman, was stopped by National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) agents at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos, barely 16 months after he was detained and found guilty of consuming 93 cocaine pellets.
He was caught importing 817 wraps of the same class. A 19.40 kg substance having a street value of around N4,656,000,000.00 (four billion, six hundred, and fifty-six million Naira). On Wednesday, May 10, 2023, Ogbuji was initially taken into custody at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA) in Abuja. He had arrived from Uganda via Addis Ababa on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 951, when he was found to have consumed 93 cocaine pellets weighing a total of 1.986 kg.
On July 13, 2023, he was found guilty after being arraigned before Federal High Court 12 Abuja, which was chaired by Hon. Justice Mobolaji Olajuwon. His charge number was FHC/ABJ/CR/192/2023. Ogbuji was given a two-year prison sentence and given the opportunity to pay a fine of three million naira (N3,000,000.00). He chose to pay the fine and was released.
The court also ordered the confiscation of the seized 1.986 kg cocaine, his international passport, 14 US dollars and 9000 Uganda shillings found on him at the moment of his arrest. Not content to stop committing crimes, Ogbuji was detained once more on Wednesday, September 18, 2024, at the Lagos airport while passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Lagos were being cleared in.
An NDLEA agent cleared the luggage once the suspect entered the joint examination table carrying a black travel bag. Ogbuji made the unwise decision to slip back to the carousel area and place a black rucksack he had left on the conveyor belt inside the cleared bag.
Alert NDLEA officers stopped him as he was leaving the arrival hall and conducted a second search on him. It was then big wraps of excrement cocaine were found stashed within the backpack disguised in the black travelling bag that was earlier seized with the defendant.
817 cocaine pellets, totalling 19.40 kg, that were excreted by numerous traffickers in Addis Ababa and belonged to various drug gang members were found. The suspect said in the interview that he first left the drug-filled backpack at the carousel area as a means of eluding NDLEA agents. He added that he was unaware that there might be a follow-up search because he had previously given his bag for search and nothing implicating was discovered. He said that in order to carry on with his illegal business, he needed to obtain a new international passport.
Based on an investigation, Ogbuji is an unrepentant kingpin inside the drug cartel network that operates between Brazil, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and other countries in the West African sub-region, including Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Togo, and Ghana. As a response to Ogbuji’s arrest, The NDLEA’s chairman and chief executive officer, Brig. Gen.
Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), praised the officers and men of the MMIA Strategic Command for their outstanding work and added that the large cocaine shipment that was seized at the airport was a significant accomplishment that would send a strong message to foreign drug cartels attempting to establish themselves in Nigeria. He declared that the Agency will keep up its efforts to thwart the operations of drug cartels that are present in the nation.
