Date: 2012-10-21

A top official of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) in Kwara State  has been nabbed by authorities in Saudi Arabia for alleged drug trafficking.

Official confirmation of the development was impossible as at the time of filing this report but several leaders and members of the association who spoke to our correspondent independently said the story was true asking however that they must not be identified in print. The matter was part of the sermon in some mosques on Friday with clerics urging their members to learn from the bitter development.

The embattled official, it was gathered had gone to perform the Lesser Hajj in August this year but was yet to return to Nigeria as at yesterday. Unconfirmed sources claimed he was sentenced to a six month term of imprisonment over the matter.

 It was gathered that the embattled petroleum dealer who owns a filling station in Ilorin, the state capital was accompanied to the lesser hajj by a female member of his family enroute Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport.

He was said to have been nabbed upon landing in Saudi Arabia with the illegal drug allegedly stuffed inside some quantity of yam flour which he had packed along with his baggage.Sources claimed that the IPMAN official opened up to interrogators after the discovery following which they reportedly released his female co-traveller.

The development was said to have hindered him from  performing the lesser hajj as he was nowhere to be found by his friends and relations during the exercise. The matter was said to have been blown opened when his female partner started making frantic efforts among his friends and relation about his plight.