NDLEA Arrests General Overseer With Drugs At Lagos Airport

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested Ugochukwu Emmanuel Ekwem, the General Overseer of Christ Living Hope Church, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos.

He was apprehended with 54 drug sticks wrapped around his body on his way to a three-week crusade in Nairobi, Kenya.

The NDLEA said in a statement titled, ‘Church General Overseer arrested with drugs at Lagos airport,’ that when the drugs were tested, the 54 sticks came back positive for cannabis.

“National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) agents arrested Rev. Ugochukwu Emmanuel Ekwem, General Overseer of Christ Living Hope Church, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja Lagos, while on his way to a three-week crusade in Nairobi, Kenya, with 54 sticks of drugs wrapped around his body,” according to the statement.

According to the statement, during a preliminary interview, the clergyman admitted to packing that amount of illegal substance on his body to use during his three-week crusade in Kenya.

“On the same day, Nnakeanyi Chukwuka King, a passenger arriving at the airport on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil via Addis Ababa, was detained during passenger inward clearance at the MMIA’s E-Arrival Hall.

“Fourty (40) parcels of Cocaine concealed inside bottles of body cream with a gross weight of 9.70kg were recovered from the suspect during a search of his luggage,” the statement continued.

The agency also said it arrested Edo Blessing on an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Italy on March 9 with 2, 090 Tramadol 225mg and Flunitrazepam tablets, as well as one Rafiu Abbas at the airport’s NAHCO Export Shed when he presented a cargo containing 19.15kg cannabis bound for London.

According to the NDLEA, the young and popular preacher has a church headquarters in Isuaniocha, Mgbakwu Road, Awka, Awka North LGA, Anambra State, as well as two other branches in Lagos and Abuja.

Mohamed Buba Marwa, Chairman of the NDLEA, praised officers and men from the MMIA, Apapa Port, Kaduna, Yobe, and Anambra commands for the impressive seizures and arrests made in the last week.