Posted by By UCHE USIM on
The Virgin Atlantic plane seized by narcotic agents in Lagos, following the arrest of a crew member that was caught with cocaine on Wednesday was released Thursday.
… As 53-year-old woman faces trial
The Virgin Atlantic plane seized by narcotic agents in Lagos, following the arrest of a crew member that was caught with cocaine on Wednesday was released Thursday.
The suspect, Mohammed Wudil, was caught on a London bound flight number VS 652 with 1.743 kilogrammes of cocaine concealed in a black polythene bag, inside a hand luggage hidden in the flight compartment.
But before the dust of the scandal could settle, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) spoke of another achievement on Thursday when it arraigned a 53-year-old mother of two before a Federal High Court for attempting to export six kilogrammes of cocaine to London.
The suspect, Mrs Adedayo Samuel was arrested at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos with the substance concealed in her luggage.
According to NDLEA, the woman said she received the luggage containing the drugs and clothes from her cousin named as Seun Lawrence, who is based in Switzerland. She was asked to deliver it to one Tunse Bamidele in London with a promise of financial reward. She was informed by Seun that the drug in the bag was 800 grammes of cocaine but the actual quality is six kilogrammes.
Mrs Samuel, however, ran out of luck on April 20, 2007, when she was travelling to London on her way to the United States to meet her husband, one Samuel Tunde and her two kids.
Regretting her action, the 1993 graduate of Economics said: "When I discovered that it was six kilogrammes after my arrest, I fainted. That was my saddest day."
Speaking on the Virgin Atlantic scandal, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) Captain Ado Sanusi confirmed that the airplane was supposed to have departed Wednesday night.
According to the General Services Agent of the airline, John Adebanjo, the issue upset the presidency, adding that it put a question mark on the nation's quest for better aviation sector.
Meanwhile, the country Manager of the airline, Samantha Olsen said that the airline would be working closely with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency(NDLEA) to reduce the chances of such an occurrence repeating itself.
Speaking with aviation correspondents at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport(MMIA), Olsen said that Virgin Atlantic would fully co-operate with the NDLEA on the short and medium term.
Her words: "We are fully co-operating with the authorities and they have asked us to do thorough hand searches as well as all the other searches that the cabin crew go through on all hand luggage that they take on board the aircraft.
"So we've started that as of today and that will happen to all our crew from here on, so they'll go through the normal airport passenger checks, through our security checks".