Ms. Ifeoma Ethel Okpala, the 37-year-old niece of Mrs. Dora Akunyili, has a court date today in Judge Molokwu’s Court Room, Court 8, in Lagos in connection with last year’s drug arrest. The question on everyone’s lips is, Will she show up?
Ms. Ifeoma Ethel Okpala, the 37-year-old niece of Mrs. Dora Akunyili, has a court date today in Judge Molokwu’s Court Room, Court 8, in Lagos in connection with last year’s drug arrest. The question on everyone’s lips is, Will she show up?
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Last August, Ms. Ifeoma Ethel Okpala was arrested at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos for trying to board a flight to London with cocaine hidden on her body. She had 20 wraps ingested and another 54 wraps packed and worn as a diaper.
Ms. Okpala was said to have been freed on bail as a result of “pressure from above.” How she jumped bail and escaped to London is a subject of an ongoing investigation.
Mitchell Ofoyeju, the Head, Public Affairs, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), told reporters in Lagos that the agency is not aware of Mr. Okpala’s whereabouts. He said that it was the court that granted her bail. When pressed on when she was bailed and who granted her bail, Mr. Ofoyeju could not provide details. He also could not explain how Ms. Okpala escaped from Nigeria even though the agency has her traveling documents. He, however, denied that Mrs. Dora Akunyili had anything to do with Ms. Okpala’s case.
Ms. Okpala was not just Mrs. Dora Akunyili’s niece; she worked for Mrs. Akunyili when she was the director general of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC.
The Ms. Okpala’s incident has become a source of embarrassment to the NDLEA. Some in the NDLEA are said to be afraid that incidents like this will jeopardize its relationship with the U.S. government that has provided equipment and support for its anti-narcotics crusade. The United States has recently delisted Nigeria from the notorious list of countries that are major hubs for drug trafficking.
International donor agencies that support the activities of NDLEA with funds and training have also expressed their displeasure at the selective discharge of justice at the agency. A source at one of the agencies told Saharareporters that the agency will review its relationship with NDLEA in the light of this revelation.
“We cannot condone a situation where suspects who are relations of powerful Nigerians go free while other suspects are made to bear the full brunt of the law,” our source said.
At the time of her arrest, Ms. Okpala made all effort to hide her real identity to avoid being associated with Mrs. Dora Akunyili. She gave agents of the NDLEA a fake home town of Ezinifite in Aguata LGA, Anambra. The news of her arrest threw the people of Ezinifite who live in London into confusion as they wondered which of their own was arrested at Murtala Muhammed International Airport.
Friends of Ms. Okpala told Saharareporters that since she returned to London, she has been gloating to her friends abroad that she had beaten the Nigerian system. She was said to be deriding those friends she felt did not support her while she was in detention.
Ms. Okpala’s aunty, Mrs. Dora Akunyili, was nominated for ministerial appointment by All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, after she was defeated by Dr. Chris Ngige in Anambra Central Senatorial election. A former member of the PDP, Mrs. Akunyili resigned from President Jonathan’s cabinet and jumped over to APGA to contest the April 2011 election.
Initially, the presidency was said to be favorable to Mrs. Akunyili’s nomination as a reward to APGA and Peter Obi who delivered Anambra State for President Jonathan. Saharareporters sources said that voices of dissent within President Jonathan’s screening panel who viewed Mrs. Akunyili as a self-promoter were waved aside until a security report on her unearthed the drug arrest of her niece.
As at the time of going to press, Mrs. Dora Akunyili’s name is on the list of those who failed the so-called Jonathan’s ‘integrity test’ because of the circumstances surrounding her nieces’ embarrassing drug case. But our source said that we should not be surprised if she makes the final cut of ministers because of her connection to the Chairman of the PDP board of trustees, former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
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