This Nigerian mother of three kids had a thriving clothes business but she wanted more. Grace Beji Black-Duke, 47, was not ready to wait or bid time. She wanted quick wealth. Now, she has been caught red handed by the NDLEA with drugs in her panties.Black-Duke, no doubt, did well in her trading profession. Some years after she left school, she met herhusband with whom she had three kids.But her marriage would not pass the test of time. Black-Duke soon took custody of the products of the marriage; three lovely kids. Over time, she took to selling ladies’ clothes in Port Harcourt, where she owns a big boutique.
Black-Duke chose to courier drugs. With the lure of $3, 000 only if she would deliver a consignment to a cartel in Malaysia, Black-Duke agreed to courier the banned drugs.
She was told she would courier methamphetamine to Malaysia. Oblivious of what methamphetamine was, Black-Duke’s sponsors assured her that the drug was of lesser importance as cocaine and heroin.
Initially, her sponsors informed her that she would have to swallow the drugs, but she admittedly refused to swallow it for fear of it bursting in her tummy. Instead she hid the drugs in her under-pants, hoping she would not be frisked down her torso.
On the day she was to fly, Black-Duke arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos with the drugs well hidden. Moments later, passengers scheduled for Egypt Airline en route Kualar Lumpur, Malaysia were called for routine screening.
Black-Duke was soon found to be laden with some banned drugs. 1kg of methamphetamine was discovered in her underpants. She was whisked to the observation room of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
She soon confessed to her crime and is currently assisting anti-narcotics agents with information regarding her sponsors and other collaborators.
Black-Duke, who blamed her love for quick money for her current travails, claimed she could no longer rely on the proceeds from her boutique to cater for herself and three kids.
“I agreed to smuggle the drugs because they promised to pay me 3,000 dollars”. I will blame myself because I needed quick money.
Speaking on Black-Duke’s arrest, Chairman of the NDLEA, Alhaji Ahmadu Giade, said that every arrest and seizure of drugs recorded by the agency takes the country forward in the anti-drug campaign, and vowed that his men would not relent in bringing sanity back into the country.
“Stakeholders should equally lend their supporting hand because no agency or country can win the battle alone”, Giade said.
Mitchell Ofoyeju, NDLEA spokesman, told reporters that Black-Duke’s excuses for going into the trade were in-consequential adding that she would be charged to court upon completion of investigations
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