Suspect who hid cocaine in soap tablets nabbed by NDLEA at the airport

He hid 630g of cocaine in six tablets of soap to smuggle to United Kingdom. Olawole Akanle, a 42 year-old man was recently arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.
He was not fast enough as the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency nabbed him as he was about to board an Arik Air flight to London.


Nicholas Ezika, another suspect was also arrested. Ezika ingested 62 wraps of methamphetamine weighing 1.130kg which he was about smuggling to Malaysia via Egypt Airline flight.
Mr Hamza Umar, the NDLEA commander at the airport confirmed the arrests. He said this is the second time we are detecting drugs concealed in soap this year. Although it was an ingenious plan, we are able to detect it. Olawole and Ezika were said to have made confessional statements on their involvement.


Akanle, who holds Nigerian and British passports, said, “I was born in London. I lived in south-east London until 2007 when I came back to Nigeria. I sell laptops, clothes and shoes to earn a living. I was contacted to smuggle the drugs by a friend. He told me that since I have a British passport and had lived there, it will be easy for me to handle. They also told me that the drug was neatly concealed. He promised to pay me £3,000 excluding all travel expenses. That was how I got involved.”

An auto parts dealer at the Onitsha Market in Anambra State, Ezika blamed his predicament on the demolition of his shop. He said, “I am an auto parts dealer at Npkor, Onitsha. I was doing fine in business until my shop was demolished. After the demolition, it was difficult to take care of my wife and only child. I had no option of survival than to accept $3,000 to smuggle the drugs. I ingested the drugs at Onitsha and came to Lagos to board my flight to Malaysia. I was ignorant of the fact that drug offenders are liable to death in Malaysia. It was after my arrest that I discovered the risk involved in my action.”

In his reaction, the Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade, expressed delight over Ezika’s arrest. He said, “I am very happy with the arrests, particularly that of the second suspect, Ezika. It is good that we detected the drug here. Apart from the death penalty he would have faced in Malaysia, we have also protected the image of the country from disrepute. I urge members of the public to join in the fight against drug trafficking and abuse. We have saved many young people from similar premature deaths and we hope to do more to protect lives in the days ahead.”