As full compliance to implementation of the Executive Order on Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria entered its third month, investigations revealed that the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency ( NDLEA), Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos, Command has arrested at least 13 persons suspected of engaging in illegal drug activities in the airport.
The anti- narcotic agency has intensified surveillance activities leading to the arrests interrogations and detection of many staffers of the two major ground handling companies, Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc. (nahco aviance) and Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL) operating in the airport.
African Business Travel News (ABTN) can confirm that while eight arrests were made in the month of August, only five suspects got into the net of the anti drug agency in the airport in September.
Sources, at the NDLEA’s national headquarters, Ikoyi, Lagos, which disclosed the information to ABTN under the conditions of anonymity, said it is to prove that NDLEA has not gone to bed since the introduction of the executive order in June, as widely speculated.
The sources claimed that NDLEA decided to make less noise of its activities at the Lagos airport and others in the recent time so that ongoing investigations would not be jeopardised.
The sources also disclosed that since introduction of the Presidential Order which has made the deployment of screening machines at every entry point in the airport possible, it has almost become impracticable for anyone to import or export narcotics through the terminal.
The sources explained to our correspondent that while the cabals of illegal drugs and their collaborators within the airport realised they could no longer pass through the terminal with their illegal articles of trade without being detected and arrested, they attempted to carry out their nefarious activities by enrolling some staffers of the two major ground handling companies in the airport.
The attempts, according to the sources, equally met its waterloo as NDLEA operatives were quick to detect the antics of the cabals, thereby, leading to many arrests of the collaborators and recruits, while further investigations that may lead to many arrests are ongoing.
The sources disclosed that while some staffers of NAHCo plc were arrested in two consecutive operations, some staffer of SAHCOL were arrested, interrogated and detained from one operation carried out during the period.
Further investigations however revealed that in the last three months, not less than 20 staffers of the two ground handling companies in the Lagos international have been interrogated for their involvements in drug related activities.
The arrested and interrogated staffers were said to have offered reliable information which has been helping the operations of the NDLEA and other aviation security agencies in the airport.
The fear of possible continue involvement of some airport workers in crime in the airport is however, becoming more worrisome as many of the workers who are said to be poorly remunerated by their employers, on daily basis contend with very tempting financial rewards from drug barons operating outside the airport.
Meanwhile, attempts to get comments from the two spokespersons of the ground handling companies on the alleged arrests and detection of their staffers by NDLEA on drug related offences, met with brick walls as neither of them was ready to speak on the issue.
The much they could offer was, “ Our workers are well paid. If anybody is arrested, they must be with NDLEA who has to make a comment and prosecute them if they have cases to answer”.
