Devil’s messengers: Dubious strategies drug pushers employ in planting cocaine, others on air travellers

VICTOR AYENI writes about the dark art used by drug traffickers to plant illicit drugs on innocent passengers who are unwittingly used as couriers to convey incriminating items to foreign countries

A mild drama ensued on January 16, 2024, at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos, when an unnamed traveller accosted an airport worker for allegedly planting an illegal substance on him.

The viral video which captured the employee being manhandled by the passenger who billed to travel to Accra, Ghana, was first posted on Thursday, January 18, by an X information and commentary page named Sabi Radio.

Sunday PUNCH gathered that the traveller caused a scene at the airport alleging that one of the employees, later identified as Ugochukwu, attempted to use him to smuggle what he believed to be illicit drugs hidden in a parcel.

The flyer, it was gathered, was approached by Ugochukwu while at the airport who asked him to deliver a parcel which he claimed was a medication to an individual at his destination.

A caption attached to the 16-second video which garnered over 5.1 million views on Sabi Radio as of Wednesday afternoon, read, “That’s how a stupid FAAN staff (sic) tried to set us up to smuggle drugs, today. A whole (sic) Port Harcourt boy.”

The passenger, in an X post accompanying the video, opined that if he had not raised the alarm and rattled the airport, his picture would have been posted everywhere by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency accusing him of being a drug trafficker.

Either (sic) it is their usual operation to set people up but they know they jammed (sic) their match today. As I begin razz the whole airport, them know say person dey.

“That’s how my life would have gone like that. Una for see my picture for everywhere for NDLEA says I smuggle drug for an international airport.

“Innocent people are jailed daily through this method but they jam (sic) their match today. The NDLEA personnel were not acting shocked. Y’all (sic) need to be careful at these airports,” he wrote, in a post interspersed with Pidgin English.

In the video sighted by our correspondent, Ugochukwu could be seen kneeling before the miffed passenger and trying to explain himself to two other onlookers.

“I didn’t even open the drug; I just saw this man and told him to please help me,” he was heard saying as the angry air passenger charged at him.

“Tell me the f***ing content of this drug,” the traveller interrupted, slapping Ugochukwu across the face.

Many Nigerians took to social media in response to the video. Some said that such an action could have led to the false accusation of drug trafficking against numerous innocent persons while other netizens argued that it was not a case of drug smuggling since the airport’s screening machine had cleared the passenger’s luggage.

One of them, a travel agent, Lucky Ehiorobo, claimed that a false narrative had been added to the story.

“This happened since Tuesday. He (airport worker) didn’t put the medicine (sic) in the pocket of the passenger, please. The staff (sic) asked the man to help him carry some vitamin supplements to Accra and give them to someone there. The passenger agreed and collected the package.

“The so-called drugs passed through the screening machine and checkpoints all cleared it. It was when the man was boarding and he had the fear of not knowing the content of the medicine (sic) that he started acting up. It was not drug smuggling, please be guided,” Ehiorobo wrote.

Conversely, an X user, @Gidi_Traffic said the incident could be more serious than it looked and a plot to incriminate an innocent traveller.

 “According to our sources, in cases like these, there’s a standby corrupt NDLEA operative on the receiving end waiting to arrest the innocent traveller on a low key.

“In some instances, the receiver tracks the luggage and takes the merchandise, either by stealing the entire luggage or in some extreme cases, kidnapping, killing the passenger and making it seem like a robbery!

If the passenger is not lucky and is stopped by security, well then, passengers are unfortunately criminalised, paraded on national TV and legally sentenced for crimes they didn’t commit. The airport CCTV footage could be having selective amnesia and may not help your case,” the netizen wrote.

Meanwhile, a British lawyer on X, Baron Chymaker, pointed out that he had witnessed a Nigerian face the consequences of illicit substances stuffed into his luggage.

He wrote, “We had a drug case a few years ago, and the defendant, who came from Nigeria, swore and cried profusely that he was not the owner of the drug and sincerely was (not) aware of how that drug got to his luggage, but none of us believed him.

“Since I saw this video, I (have) felt maybe, just maybe, we didn’t do our best for him, and he may have been a victim.”

Another X user and legal practitioner, Usman Shamaki, said the MMIA incident should lead to a review of all drug trafficking arrests made by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.

“In a sane society, this incident should immediately trigger a review of all arrests and convictions, as well as an investigation into all officials at the airport. But this is Nigeria. We’ll just say, ‘Oh well’ and move on,” he wrote.

However, in its response to the viral video, the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, in a statement signed by its Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Mrs Obiageli Orah, on Thursday, disclosed that Ugochukwu was not an employee of the agency but a private company that worked with airlines.

It also said the item with the name, ‘New Age Glucosamine Chondroitin Sulfate Complex’ was taken to the NDLEA for further investigation.

The statement read partly, “The Authority wishes to set the records straight by stating that the officer being manhandled in the video is not a staff of FAAN. He has been identified as a member of the staff of Pathfinder Company.

“The employee was said to have approached a passenger to help him convey a parcel through the flight. When the passenger became sceptical, he raised the alarm, alleging that he was being set up for drug trafficking.

“The employee was immediately arrested for questioning by the Crime Investigation and Intelligence Unit of the Aviation Security Services.

“The passenger involved has since departed on Ibom Air to Accra while the medication with the name ‘New Age Glucosamine Chondroitin Sulfate Complex’ has been taken to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency for further investigation.”