Igwe M.O.P
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Knowledge Flows From The Man Who Knows...M.O.P
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« on: May 18, 2010, 17:43:07 PM » |
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THE road to the Edo State House of Assembly has ended at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, for a pharmacist who was trying to raise money for the 2011 election by pushing cocaine. According to officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the 52-year-old suspect, Eme Zuru Ayortor (a.k.a Paul Osimele Shegee), was trying to export 2.120kg of cocaine in his stomach. The drug was valued at N21 million. Ayortor, who was to board a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, was intercepted at the screening centre of the airport with the aid of a scanning machine. “After undergoing observation, the pharmacist turned politician excreted 100 pieces of powdery substance that tested positive to cocaine weighing 2.120kg. The quantity also makes him the highest drug ingesting suspect since January. He claimed to have relied on his physique and social status to evade arrest, but the stratagem was not successful. Preliminary check on him revealed that he was preparing himself financially for the forthcoming election into the Edo State House of Assembly, ” NDLEA spokesman, Ofoyeju Mitchell, said yesterday. In his reaction, NDLEA Chairman, Ahmadu Giade assured that the agency “is determined to expose anybody dealing in narcotic drugs under any guise ”. He added: “In addition to their exposure, they will be appropriately charged to court under the NDLEA Act. “We do not look at faces in conducting drug screening and we are not moved by credentials. Whoever is dealing in narcotics shall be exposed and prosecuted in line with the Agency ’s Act.” Ayortor used to be a teacher at Baptist High School, Benin City, before he went to the United States where he studied pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin. He returned to Nigeria in 2006 and in 2007, contested for a seat at the Edo State House of Assembly and lost. The NDLEA Airport Commander, Alhaji Hamza Umar said that the case was under investigation and that a follow-up operation on the case had been positive. “A follow-up operation into the case is yielding very positive result and at the appropriate time, more facts shall be released to the public, ” he said. During interrogation, the suspect said: “I contested the 2007 House of Assembly election in Edo State and lost. I also lost all my savings as a practising pharmacist in that election. Now, the coast is clear and I am being favoured to run in 2011 in my party. That was how I got involved in this mess. I needed to reposition myself for the 2011 election financially. I thought that with my position and appearance, there will be no problem at the screening. I do not know where to start from here. ” Ayortor hails from Orhionmhon Local Government Area of Edo. The NDLEA recently arrested a doctorate degree holder, an ex-councillor and a couple trying to use their children to smuggle cocaine, at the Lagos airport.
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