Drug Courier, NDLEA delay Eagles' Lima tripWARRI Wolves' goalkeeper, Chigozie Agbim, yesterday morning led 18 other players to Lima, where Nigeria is billed to meet Peru in an international friendly on Wednesday.Also in the team, which would be joined by five Europe-based stars, are Heartland of Owerri's goalkeeper Dan Akpeyi, his Sharks' counterpart, Okemute Odah, defenders Papa Idris, Juwon Oshaniwa, Godfrey Oboabona and Azubuike Egwueke.Others are Sunday Mba, Uche Ossai, Izu Azuka, Gbolahan Salami, Ejike Uzoenyi, Ogonna Izuchukwu, Gabriel Reuben, Henry Uche, Obinna Nwachukwu and Kalu Uche. They will be joined by Ekigho Ehiosun, Raheem Lawal, Gege Soriola, Obiorah Nwankwo and Nnamdi Oduamadi.President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Aminu Maigari, who was at the airport to see the team off, promised continuous activities for the players in the bid to rebuild a strong national team.He charged the players and officials to go out for an outright victory in Lima, even as he said he was proud of the home-based professionals and their steady rise to international stardom.'You are lucky to have former stars like Keshi, Amokachi and Ike Shorunmi as your coaches and I have no doubt that sooner than later, new Keshis, Amokachis and Okochas will be discovered from this squad,' he said.But before the team left yesterday, the contingent experienced a drama at the airport when its movement was delayed by the arrest of a drug suspect by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) aboard an Iberia Airliner in Lagos.The Eagles, led by coach Stephen Keshi, had flown into the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos from Abuja with 18 players and officials on Saturday afternoon for the 8p.m flight to Madrid en route Lima for the friendly international. After the check-in formalities with Iberia and other boarding routines with all security agencies at the airport, the team was asked to board alongside other passengers.After about an hour, all the passengers had boarded the plane at about 8:30p.m, and just as the airline's officials were asking all to sit down for take-off, there was a sudden bedlam, as an official of the airline announced that NDLEA officials had asked all passengers to disembark for fresh security checks following the discovery of a drug peddler in the aircraft.By now, it was getting to about 9.30pm, and by the time the fresh check was complete on all passengers, it was exactly 10.20p.m. NDLEA officials then came into the aircraft with their sniffer dogs and spent another 30 minutes checking the plane. By now, a suspect whose name they refused to give, had been arrested and another, who left his international passport in the aircraft, was on the run.
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