Mr. Emeka Alphonsus Ezenwanne, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA)’s witness in the trial of DCP Abba Kyari and others, on Thursday, indicted the operatives of the agency stationed at the Enugu International Airport.
Ezenwanne made the disclosure during a cross-examined by counsel for Kyari and two others, Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, before Justice Emeka Nwite of a Federal High Court, Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ezenwanne and Chibunna Patrick Umeibe were the two drug traffickers who smuggled cocaine into the country from Ethiopia through Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.
They were convicted and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment after they pleaded guilty to the three counts preferred against them by the NDLEA.
Nwite had ordered that the three counts, which attracted two-year jail term each, would run concurrently following their plea bargain agreement with the anti-narcotic agency.
They also agreed to stand as NDLEA’s witness in the trial of the five suspended police officers of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Inspector-General of Police headed by Kyari.
Other police officers include ACP Sunday Ubia, ASP Bawa James, Insp. Simon Agirigba and Insp. John Nuhu who are 2nd to 5th defendants respectively.
However, they all pleaded not guilty to the charges levelled against them by the agency in the alleged cocaine deal.
At the resumed trial, Ezenwanne said though he was not a drug dealer, he had only smuggled drugs into Nigeria on two occasions.
When Ikpeazu asked him if he had ever heard about NDLEA before he was arrested on Jan. 19 by the men of the IRT, he responded in affirmative.
Ezenwanne admitted that before he travelled to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, he knew that the NDLEA operatives are stationed at all international airports to prevent drugs from being trafficked into the country.
“On the two occasions you brought drugs into Nigeria, were you arrested or stopped by NDLEA officers from bringing those drugs into Nigeria?” the senior lawyer asked
“No,” Ezenwanne, who was the sixth prosecution witness responded.
He said he had never tasted nor tested cocaine before, and that he did not weigh the two bags of cocaine (Exhibits 7 and 8) delivered to him before he brought them into the country.
He said on his way from Addis Ababa, he had in his possession 400 dollars and N11, 000; his international passport, his bag with two or three clothes, his ticket and his phone gadget.
“When you got to the Enugu International Airport (on Jan. 19), did you see the COVID-19 agents (the NCDC officers) and Immigration agents?” Ikpeazu asked and he responded in affirmative.
“You saw other agents who directed you to a private room to search your bags?” the lawyer also asked.
Ezenwanne said: “Yes, I saw them (the agents); two men who directed me to a table for searching.”
He said when he was in Addis Ababa, the drug barons who handed him the bags of cocaine took his photograph.
When the lawyer then asked if the reason for taking his picture was to send it to those who would clear him at the point of entry in Nigeria, the convict said he didn’t know why they did that.
Ikpeazu, therefore, applied for the statement Ezenwanne made at the NDLEA office on Jan. 25 and read a part in the open court where the witness said: “The moment I received the stuff (cocaine) from my people, they will take my picture which they will use to clear way for me at the Enugu International Airport.”
When the lawyer further asked him if it was the statement he made, Ezenwanne said: “It is the statement I made. What I said before was not the same with want I said in court.”
Justice Nwite then admitted the Jan. 25 statement in evidence and marked it as Exhibit 15.
Ezenwanne admitted that he was told by the barons that he would need to have some money with him for “those people that will search his bag.”
He said he gave the agents at the airport N10, 000 to clear him before the police IRT officers arrested him.
Ezenwanne admitted that after they were arrested, they “pleaded with the police to pervert justice by taking all the cocaine in order to allow them to go” but the IRT men stood their ground.
“If they had let you go you will not have been angry with them, will you?” Ikpeazu asked.
“No, why should I be angry with them,” he responded. The senior lawyer also asked him if he had ever had any interaction with Kyari, the 1st defendant, throughout his ordeal, and he said, “no.”
