A 59-year-old businessman, Chijioke Nnanna Igbokwe, has had a near-death experience as 81 wraps of cocaine got stuck in his tummy.
According to available information, he had to undergo a surgery, exploratory laparotomy, to get out 57 out of the 81 pellets of cocaine.
This was after seven days of ingesting the illicit substance in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
According to information made available to the media on Sunday, Igbokwe was arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency at the arrival hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos State during the inward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airlines flight on January 26, 2025.
He was promptly taken for body scan, which revealed illicit drugs in his system.
He was soon after taken into NDLEA custody for excretion observation.
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Investigation revealed that Igbokwe, who claims to be into cloth business at Arena, Oshodi area of Lagos State, departed Lagos January 22, 2025 to Addis Ababa, where he ingested the 81 wraps of cocaine the following day, January 23, 2025, and boarded a flight to Beirut, Lebanon to deliver the illicit consignment for a fee of $3,000.
Upon his arrival in Beirut, he said he was refused entry because he had less than $2,000, the amount required to grant him entry.
He was then deported to Addis Ababa, where he attempted excreting the illicit drugs, but could not.
He thereafter proceeded to Lagos on January 25 with the consignment in his bowel.
He was however arrested upon his arrival at the Lagos airport by NDLEA officers on January 26.
After five days under excretion observation, he could only expel 24 pellets following initial medical intervention at the Agency’s medical facility and the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja.
With the clock ticking for him and the complication of other underlining medical conditions, Igbokwe was eventually admitted at the tertiary facility, where he had to undergo exploratory laparotomy to extract the remaining 57 wraps of cocaine stuck in his stomach after his wife and brother endorsed the necessary consent forms on January 30.
In all, a total of 81 pellets of the Class A drug with a gross weight of 1.943 kilograms were recovered from his stomach.
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