DRUG TRAFFICKING: NIGERIAN SENTENCED TO DEATH IN PAKISTAN

A court in the city of Lahore, Pakistan yesterday sentenced a 44-year-old
Nigerian woman, Osfatu Bose Oweiye, to death on charges of drug trafficking.

Oweiye, who was arrested in 1999, after officials from Pakistan's
Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) found 20 kilogrammes of heroin on her in a
Lahore hotel was also fined 400,000 rupees ($6,925).

ANF officials alleged that Oweiye was the head of a drug-trafficking
syndicate and had been involved in high-profile smuggling cases elsewhere,
having had drugs convictions in other countries

The Nigerian, who becomes the first woman to be sentenced to death over
drug charges in Pakistan was arrested after police questioned five Nigerian
men in connection with the discovery of the heroin in the Lahore hotel.

Police said the heroin was to be smuggled out of Pakistan before being sold
in other countries.

On Tuesday, customs officials in western Pakistan said they had seized more
than a tonne of heroin. They said it was the country's biggest-ever haul of
the drug.

The raid came after a fierce gunfight following a tip-off in Balochistan
province near the Afghan border. A number of suspected smugglers, however,
escaped.

Customs officials said the 1,350 kilogrammes of heroin was of the highest
quality, and suspect it was smuggled from neighbouring Afghanistan.

The United Nations (UN) international narcotics control board said that
opium cultivation in Afghanistan - used in heroin and other drugs - is now
as widespread as in the 1990s.