A cocaine trafficker heading to India faces 25 years in prison. A Federal High Court sentenced Freeman Charles Ogbonna, a Delhi, India-bound passenger, to twenty-five (25) years in prison after vomiting and excreting eighty (80) wraps of cocaine following his arrest by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, at the screening point of terminal 2 of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA Ikeja Lagos.
Ogbonna was arrested on Sunday 31st March while attempting to board his flight to Delhi, India via Doha on Qatar Airways, with a Liberian international passport, bearing the name: Carr Bismark. He was taken for body scan, which tested positive for ingestion of illicit drugs.
Preliminary investigations showed his true name as Freeman Charles Ogbonna, and he was later placed under observation in NDLEA detention, where he began to exhibit signs of distress. Clearly suffocated by the amount of illicit substances in his stomach and another medication taken to prevent excretion, the defendant began to retch before vomiting and excreting wraps of cocaine he had consumed almost simultaneously.
During the course of four days, the suspect—who claimed that one of his relatives had recruited him into the drug trade—passed out 80 wraps of cocaine, totaling 889 grammes, through his mouth and anus. Despite the significant risk that nearly cost him his life, Ogbonna claimed that at a hotel in the Ipodo neighbourhood of Ikeja, he was given pills to consume along with a financial reward of N300,000 if he was able to deliver the package safely in India.
He was subsequently arraigned before Justice Dipeolu Deinde Isaac of the Federal High Court, Lagos in charge number FHCL/378/2024 for committing an offence contrary to section 20(1)(b) and punishable under section 20(2)(a) of the NDLEA Act Cap N30 LFN 2004. Delivering his judgement on the case on Monday 1st July 2024, Justice Dipeolu sentenced Ogbonna to 25 years in prison without an option of fine.
Brig Gen Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, praised the MMIA Command and the prosecution team for their prompt and diligent handling of the case, noting that the judiciary remains a strong pillar in Nigeria’s coordinated and concerted effort to combat the scourge of substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking. He said Ogbonna’s conviction will send a clear message to his contemporaries that there will be no safe haven for drug barons and mules.
