Hours before her return flight to the South Asian nation via the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) Kano, 26-year-old Esther Onyinyechi Uzodinma, a 200-level nursing student at Noida International University in Uttar Pradesh, India, attempted to swallow 76 wraps of cocaine, according to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
According to a comment from the nurse, she was offered more than $5,000 if the illegal shipment was successfully delivered in India.
This was revealed in a statement provided to the media and signed by Femi Babafemi, the spokesperson for the NDLEA.
He claims that Esther was arrested in her room at 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 16, at the Royal Park Hotel Sabon Garin Kano, while she was waiting for the cocaine shipment she was supposed to consume prior to her flight the next morning. Esther was supposed to board Qatar Airways flight 1432 on Friday, January 17, 2025, to return to Delhi, India from MAKIA Kano.
“Her lid was blown open when NDLEA operatives on patrol along Okene-Lokoja highway in Kogi state on Thursday 16th January intercepted 31-year-old Cosmas Okorie in a commuter bus coming from Lagos enroute Kano.
“Her lid was blown open when NDLEA operatives on patrol along Okene-Lokoja highway in Kogi state on Thursday 16th January intercepted 31-year-old Cosmas Okorie in a commuter bus coming from Lagos enroute Kano.
“Inside his black polythene bag was an audio speaker, which was used to conceal 76 pellets of cocaine weighing 1.340 kilograms, which he was going to deliver to Esther in Kano. A swift follow up operation in Kano led to the arrest of the female nursing university student later same day,” the statement said.
According to Esther’s account, the drug gang she worked for hired her in India and funded her trip to Nigeria so she could spend the Christmas and New Year’s holidays there.
In order to keep her parents from finding out that she was in Nigeria, Esther stayed in a hotel in Enugu for two weeks. From there, she was flown to Abuja and then to Kano, where she was housed at the Royal Park Hotel to swallow the 76 cocaine pellets that were sent to her from Lagos before her Friday morning flight to India on Qatar Airways.
She was cited as saying she was promised more than $5,000 after the illegal shipment was successfully delivered in India.
