FOUR years after surviving a fuel fire in Surulere, Lagos, a 45-year-old suspected drug trafficker has died of cocaine ingestion.

Hakeem Adesegun, a trader, who was said to have survived fire on October 3, 2006, allegedly ingested the cocaine, preparatory to his trip to Europe.

He reportedly died in the hospital when one of the wraps ruptured in his stomach.

This was confirmed after a post-mortem witnessed by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) was carried out on him in Lagos.

Sources said a burst wrap, among other wraps, was discovered in his stomach and after it was tested, it proved positive to cocaine.

Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade, described the incident as sad, saying: “I sympathise with the family of the deceased”.

Giade also urged youths to have the fear of God and consider the consequences of their action.

“If they have no respect for themselves, they should, at least, consider their loved ones and their creator,” the NDLEA boss charged.

The late suspect is survived by two wives and eight children.

It was gathered that Adesegun had ingested several wraps of the drug, but because of the complications on him, his sponsors kept him to excrete them.

When the last wrap was stuck in his stomach, they were said to have reluctantly asked him to go back home.

A member of the family who preferred anonymity said that the deceased kept everybody in the dark about the incident.

“Hakeem left home without telling either of his two wives where he was going. Three days later, he returned looking very sick. He did not even say what the problem was until he collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. We did not know he had taken drugs,” said a relative.

Giade, however, called on members of the public to report suspected drug cases to the agency for prompt intervention, directing narcotic investigators to unmask “the callous and materialistic sponsors” of the late Adesegun to face the full wrath of the law.

According to Giade, “drug barons are not bothered over the death of a courier. They will try to retrieve their drugs and recruit another person to smuggle it. We all have a duty to identify these societal enemies and bring them to book”.

The agency had also instructed the hospital authority to release the corpse to the family members for burial.

Before the late Adesegun, some suspected traffickers had, in the past few years, died of drug ingestion.

A suspected woman drug trafficker, Ifeoma Daniel, 29, slumped and died at the departure hall of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, on December 15, 2007 as a wrap of cocaine she allegedly ingested burst in her stomach.

She was to board an Ethiopian airline flight to Dubai when she met her untimely death.

The late Ifeoma had allegedly ingested 79 wraps of narcotic drug that tested positive to cocaine.

The cocaine weighing 1.325kg was evacuated from her bowels through post-mortem. Her last known address was Ohafia Road, Ikorodu, Lagos. Similarly, a drug suspect arrested by NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos, Agidi Agwu Agbai, 44, also died on May 24, 2008 due to complications arising from drug ingestion.

The late suspect was arrested about a week earlier during the screening of passengers for unlawful possession of narcotics on a KLM flight to Amsterdam. He was placed under observation and allegedly excreted 69 wraps of substances that tested positive to cocaine weighing 1.213kg. Agidi, however, died when one wrap allegedly ruptured in his stomach. He hailed from Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia State.


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