Chairman of the Nigeria Diaspora Commission (NDC), Hon. Abike Dabiri, has indicted Egypt and Ethiopian Airlines for allegedly running drug cartels at Nigeria’s International Airports across the country.
She stated this when she appeared before the Ad-hoc Committee panel headed by Senator Kabiru Gaya on Wednesday in Abuja.
The committee began investigation of circumstances that led to the arrest of Miss Zainab Habibu Aliyu alongside others by authorities of Saudi Arabia over drug related crimes aboard Egyptian Airlines in December, 2018.
“We have other foreign and local Airlines operating at our Airports, but Egyptian and Ethiopian Airlines have drug cartels operating at our International Airports.
“They operate alongside local collaborators. It is not Air Peace, not Arik Air, but Egyptian and Ethiopian Airlines,” Dabiri insisted.
When asked by the Chairman of the Committee about condition of the scanners, officials of Federal Airport Authority (FAAN) revealed that scanners at the Aminu Kano International Airport were not configured to detect drugs.
They further said, there were 15 security agents involved in checking luggages at the point of entry and exit, but they have been pruned due to public complaints.
Representative of the Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) also disclosed that their German trained sniffer dogs were few in number.
“Throughout the federation, NDLEA only have 14 sniffer dogs stationed in Lagos and we don’t even have one to detect drugs at the Aminu Kano International Airport at all,” NDLEA maintained.
