A National Youth Service Corp member, Abubakar Sayeed, has been found to be in possession of six Nigerian passports by the officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency at the Muritala Mohammed International Airport, in Ikeja, Lagos. The suspect was being grilled as at press time.
The corps member, Sayeed, was arrested on Thursday, March 2, with the said passports on board an Ivoirien Airline from Burkina Faso to Lagos.
During interrogation, Sayeed reportedly told the NDLEA officials that he went to Saudi Arabia with the passports to process visas for certain personalities, including the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), who was recently summoned by the Senate over unpopular policy on vehicle importation by his office.
After Sayeed’s arrest, the passports were collected from him and kept in the NDLEA’s exhibit room where the officials contemplated what next to do.
“No sooner was the attention of the Nigerian Immigration Service drawn to the seizure than calls started getting to the NDLEA officials at the airport to release Sayeed, an indigene of Adamawa State,” a competent source told The Point.
The credible source told The Point that “the suspect was released after pressure was mounted from above.”
NDLEA officials at the Airport Command were said to be painstakingly working on the matter with the view to establishing his relationship with Ali and the others and why the suspect would go to Burkina Faso to process Saudi Arabia visa.
“Immigration authorities are in the know of the incident, but they pretend not to know, apparently because, they have not been formally briefed. Meanwhile, investigation is ongoing,” the source added.
