A convicted drug trafficker, Mr Emeka Ezenwanne, on Thursday, narrated before the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, how he bribed security agents with N10, 000 to be allowed to bring into the country, several packs of cocaine that was sent to him from Brazil.
Ezenwanne appeared as the fifth prosecution witness, PW-5, in the ongoing trial of the detained Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCP, Abba Kyari, who is facing drug trafficking charge.
Kyari, who hitherto headed the Police Intelligence Response Team, IRT, is facing trial alongside four members of his team; ACP Sunday J. Ubia, ASP Bawa James, Insp. Simon Agirigba and Insp. John Nuhu.
The Defendants are answering to an eight-count charge the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, preferred against them for allegedly tampering with cocaine that was seized from two convicted drug peddlers- Ezenwanne and Chibunna Patrick Umeibe.
Both Umeibe and Ezenwanne who were initially joined as Defendants in the case, were convicted and handed two years jail term after they pleaded guilty to the charge.
At the resumed proceedings in the matter on Thursday, Ezenwanne, appeared in court to testify against the embattled police officers.
Led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Mr Sunday Joseph, the witness, who is currently remanded at the Suleja prison, told the court that he brought in the cocaine which was sent to him from Brazil, using Ethiopian airline.
He said: “My lord, what happened was that on January 15, 2022, I travelled to Addis Ababa to bring cocaine with the help of Iwolabi from Brazil. I used Ethiopian Airlines with my international passport.
“Iwolabi sent his boys from Brazil to hand the cocaine to me.
“When I arrived in Ethiopia, my ticket was supposed to lead me to Cameroon, but I deliberately stopped at Addis Ababa airport so that I would miss the flight heading to Cameroon.
“The reason was so that I could meet the people that were to hand me the stuff.
“On January 16, around 8:30 pm Ethiopian time, the flight coming from Brazil arrived. Few minutes after, they called me on phone. The first person that called me is known as Alhaji.
“He called and asked where I was. I told him to meet me at the lounge. He came and handed over to me, six sachets of cocaine on white cotton packs and left.
“The second person called me, his name is Ota. He asked me the same question and I also told him to meet me at the lounge. He came and handed to me, four sachets of cocaine in white cotton packs. It became a total of 10 sachets.
“He then snapped me with his phone and left.
“My second, Chibunna, was there before me. We met and by then he had already received his own. We stayed together because our flight was scheduled to leave on January 19.
“On that January 19, in the morning, around 8am, we boarded a flight going to Enugu international airport.
“When we arrived at Enugu international airport, I was the first person to come out from the airport. I stood at the car park waiting for my second to come out.
“When he came out and was heading towards me, one woman and two men intercepted him.
“When I looked at them, I noticed that they were having an argument. As I came close to know what was happening, there was one Sienna car that was packed there. As I arrived, the four doors of the car opened and men jumped out from the car. What I heard was, ‘I did not see this one o’.
“As they held me, I shouted Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Is this how I am going to end? As they grabbed me and my second, they brought out their jackets with IRT written on them. They shared it among themselves and wore it. That was when I knew that they were police.
“Because of the shout and noise we made at the airport, people gathered. They pushed us inside that car and drove off. They took us to one empty police station near the airport.
“They brought out our bags and opened them. The team leader exclaimed; confirm! confirm! and snapped the cocaine.
“At that point, my second, begged them to leave us and carry the cocaine. They slapped him and asked if he was not aware that he would beg when he was shouting at the airport”.
The witness said they were subsequently brought to the IRT office in Abuja, where they were locked up after their statements were taken.
