POSTED FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2015 | BY- BERNARD JAMES THE CITIZEN REPORTER

Dar es Salaam. A Nigerian pastor who preached in Tanzania under auspices of his Lord Chosen Church has been handed a 30-year jail sentence after being convicted of smuggling cocaine worth Sh3.1 billion. (US$ 1.4 million)

Mr Chukwudi Okechukwu was jailed along with compatriot Paul Ikechukwu, South African Stan Hycent and Pakistani Shoaib Mohammad Ayazi over the same offence. High Court Judge Amir Mruma has also ordered the accused to pay Sh9 billion in fines.

Anti-narcotics police believe that the preacher is one of the top members of a drug syndicate operating in Tanzania, Nigeria and South Africa.

He and his three accomplices were hiding in a mansion in Dar es Salaam’s Kuduchi Mtongani suburbs when the police surrounded the house and arrested them.

Three suspects were arrested inside the house.

Upon searching the house, anti-drugs police seized 81 packets of drugs which were later confirmed by the chief government chemist to be cocaine hydrochloride.

Pastor Okechukwu first came to Tanzania in January 2011, two months before his arrest, on an evangelical mission under the umbrella of his Lord Chosen Church of Nigeria.

However, intelligence report show he had came to Tanzania some years back and had made a name for himself as a pastor at his Kinondoni Biafra church and won many followers.

source: mobile.thecitizen.co.tz

Nigerian preacher Chikwudi Okechukwu (far right, partly hidden) and fellow accused (from left) Shoaib Mohammad Ayaz, Stan Hycent and Paul Ikechukwu Obi appear before the High Court in Dar es Salaam last month. They have been jailed for 30 years each for trafficking in cocaine with an estimated street value of Sh3.1 billion. PHOTO | venance nestory

holy moses

Ibos, chai......infact no country will ever have anything to do with biafra if liberated.

bia nwokem chukwudi why why why why?? you were sent to preach na. wetin concern pastor with cocaine biko? it is too late to sympathise with you......enjoy your 30years in jail.