BY MAYOWA SAMUEL
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has granted administrative bail to the two suspects who were caught at the Abuja airport attempting to transport illegal drugs to Europe.
Director of Media and Advocacy for the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, revealed this to The Point on Thursday while giving the latest development on the suspects’ arrest.
The NDLEA had in a statement on Tuesday disclosed that it had arrested 23-year-old secondary school leaver, Iwuyi Princewill Chukwuka “with 6.3kg skunk concealed in cray fish and stuffed inside Golden Morn packs during an outward clearance of Turkish airline flight at the departure hall of the Abuja airport.”
It added that the agency, on Friday, apprehended 37-year-old Belgium based Peter Mkwo with 3kg of methamphetamine hidden in a luggage while trying to board an Ethiopian airline 910 en-route Abuja-Addis Ababa-Brussels, Belgium.
Speaking further on their bail, Babafemi stated, “They have been both granted administrative bail but nobody has come up for them. We have the discretion to grant administrative bail and their lawyers have shown up for their bail application and they have to procure federal civil servants and when they get the federal civil servant, we need to write the ministries or the MDAs to authenticate the validity of their employment.”
“We’ve granted them that opportunity to contact their families and relations, so that they can come forward for them, but you know sometimes, some families, out of shame or stigmatisation, they stay back but definitely and eventually, they will still come,” he added.
The ongoing judiciary strike has crippled court activities in the country for over a month now but Babafemi noted that “if the courts open, we don’t need to wait, we will just file and take them to court because their charges are ready.”
Led by Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (retd), the NDLEA restated the agency’s commitment to rid the country of illicit substances.
