The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has exonerated its personnel from complicity in a 25kg cocaine deal involving a gang headed by the suspended deputy commissioner of police, Mr. Abba Kyari.
The agency stated this in response to insinuations that it might be trying to shield its operatives involved in the drug deal at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.
Recall that spokesman for the police, Mr. Olumuyiwa Adejobi, in a statement on Monday, said the police investigation had established that the international narcotics cartel involved in the case had strong ties with some officers of the NDLEA at the airport who are on their pay roll.
“The two arrested drug couriers confirmed that the modus is for the transnational drug barons to conspire with the NDLEA officers on duty and send them their pre-boarding photographs for identification, seamless clearance, and unhindered passage out of the airport with the narcotics being trafficked,” he said.
Adejobi charged the NDLEA to do its homework by arresting its officers involved in the deal.
“The inspector general of police has also formally requested that the chairman and chief executive officer of the national NDLEA should ensure the identification, arrest and investigation of the agency’s officers who have also been found to be colluding with the international drug cartel involved in this case towards advancing the anti-narcotics agenda of the federal government,” he said.
Reacting to the allegation, spokesman for the NDLEA, Mr. Femi Babafemi said there was a need to correct some inaccuracies in information in the public space that NDLEA officers at the Enugu airport were the ones who received from the cartel details about the secret agent coming from Addis Ababa.
In a statement entitled, ’25kg cocaine probe: We won’t shield anyone –NDLEA’, Babafemi disclosed how the Abba Kyari-led gang operates at airports and faulted claims by the police that NDLEA received the drug dealers at the airport.
“To correct some inaccuracies in the information in the public space that NDLEA officers at the Enugu airport were the ones who received from the cartel details about the mule coming from Addis Ababa, the Agency wishes to quote from the transcript of Abba Kyari’s recorded conversation with our undercover officer and a portion of ASP James Bawa’s statement to the police as documented in the police investigation report, a copy of which was made available to the agency.
“Recall that after NDLEA requested for Kyari and others for interrogation, they were questioned by the police, after which they were handed over along with the report of their interrogation,” he said.
Bawa is one of the senior police officers arrested and handed over to the NDLEA along with Kyari and three others over the alleged drug deal.
The NDLEA spokesman said the recording showed that it is an established fact that it is “Abba Kyari’s team that was contacted by the cartel and without doubt the records clearly show how their ring works.”
According to the police investigation report, Babafemi said Bawa in his statement to the police revealed that “he was called by an informant identified as IK from Brazil who told him that a drug courier will be arriving onboard Ethiopian Airlines in Enugu.
He explained further that the Brazil-based informant met with him at about 1420hrs on 19th January 2022 outside the airport and showed him a picture of the courier.
Subsequently, they sighted the suspect as he exited the airport terminal after all arrival clearance formalities, and he was arrested with another associate.”
Babafemi said in a recorded conversation with the NDLEA’s undercover officer, Kyari also said the following: “They are greedy, seriously greedy (referring to his informants), we tried to have them accept 40% but they refused, except 50%, they know the rudiment of the deal very well. They are the ones that do the packing. From Brazil, one of the informants accompanied it to Ethiopia. You understand; one of the informants accompanied the goods to Ethiopia, one of the informants that give us information. He is the boy of the big baron.
“Addis, from Addis it will be given to those to proceed further with it, he will get their snapshots without their knowledge. Yes, he will reveal those that are conveying it further, get snapshots of theirs without their knowledge and send to us (Abba Kyari’s team).
“So we already know the goods, picture and the cloths they are wearing, hope you understand, we know your name, he will give us everything. So, automatically my team will just be waiting, they will just see you and arrest you.”
He added: “Responding to our officer’s question on whether his boys are usually stationed inside or outside the airport, Abba Kyari said, ‘Yes, yes, some are outside while some are inside. They will just allow you to finish arrival formalities and arrest you the moment you come out.’
“The above no doubt establishes who the cartel was relating with and their modus operandi. Again, this is to correct inaccuracies in some reports and assure that the agency will not deviate from an evidence-based investigation that will spare nobody found complicit.”
