Ugandan evangelist arrested in Nigeria with 87 wraps of cocaine in underwear

Nigeria’s drug enforcement agency says it arrested a 34-year-old Ugandan woman at Lagos airport after officers found 87 wraps of cocaine concealed beneath her underwear as she prepared to fly home. 

Officers stopped Faridah Nansubuga on November 3, 2026, during a joint passenger screening by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and aviation security staff at Terminal 2 of Murtala Muhammed International Airport. 

A further search in a private room uncovered the packages strapped around her pelvic area beneath two layers of underwear. The wraps weighed 1.15kg in total, the agency said. 

NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi, who announced the arrest on November 8, 2026, said Nansubuga had arrived in Nigeria on October 29, 2026, with members of her church. 

They attended a prayer session at the Synagogue Church of All Nations in the Ikotun-Egbe area of Lagos. 

Babafemi said Nansubuga told investigators that she stayed behind after the rest of the group returned to Uganda. 

She said she had agreed to collect the drugs for a friend in Uganda whom she identified only as Joy. 

The agency says Nansubuga told them the friend put her in touch with a contact in Nigeria who arranged for her to go to a hotel on the morning of her departure. 

She told investigators that a man handed her the cocaine there and instructed her to hide it under her clothes to get past airport security. 

Nansubuga told investigators that she expected to receive at least US$1,000 once she delivered the drugs in Uganda, although she said they had agreed on no fixed fee.