Okemawalan Ugo Buchi and a Singaporean woman accomplice were arrested last month after investigations by the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB).

The 31-year-old, also known as “Malik”, “Michael” and “Ugo” among his associates, is an organiser of the syndicate, which comprises of members from all over the world, spanning China, Nigeria, Spain, Greece, Guyana to Puerto Rico.

CNB, in a statement on Thursday, said the Nigerian’s plan was to court women at Clarke Quay nightspots and coffeeshops around the Bencoolen area. After picking them as girlfriends, he would live off them until they could no longer support him financially.

Then, he would lure them with offers of high paying jobs with free travel opportunities to deliver bags supposedly containing clothing samples to China and Europe. The bags actually carried drugs.

The women were paid between US$500 (S$723) to US$1500 for each delivery, depending on their destinations. The women usually started out on drug runs to nearby countries, and then eventually to Europe and Latin America.

Between December 2008 and March 2009, he organised at least 10 drug runs by making use of his girlfriends.

Okemawalan Ugo Buchi’s Singaporean accomplice is being detained for her involvement in drug smuggling activities with the syndicate

Honestly, if all your reasonings had worked, we will not be getting into this situation of repetitive complaints on the matter to MPs, ministers, and blogging mindlessly through sites like this.

Obviously, nothing had worked.

If things can be done just by being sensible and calm, even in Singapore, do we need to to resort to jailing Mas Selamat? Should we not talk sense into him? Does USA need to attack Iraq?

Obviously, the matter has gotten out of hand. No one up there is listening. Something has to be done.

I support the argument to take real action by voting down the Government and being real nasty to the foreigners. We need to let them think twice about coming over. By the way, the great salary package, safe environment, friendly people who loves foreigners are the core reasons why these guys love coming to Singapore.

If we wipe out the points on being friendly and making them feel safe, then the only reason they would choose to come over is for money. We can safely wipe out many of these fxxxing FTs.

Hi there Gemami,

I do understand the plight of Singaporeans. I have returned to finf that we are not the priority anymore, as we don’t produce enough children. The government, in all it’s wisdom, thinks that the solution to this is to open the floodgates and let anybody in, willy nilly. Somehow, I get the nagging feeling that our well renumerated politicians didn’t actually consider how this shift in priority and the susequent imbalance in the makeup of the population, would be received by Singaporeans. Or maybe they just didn’t care about us.

However, that is no excuse for being bigotted. Yes this is our country. But to completely want to rid it of all foreigners sounds frighteningly like Nationalistic Socialism. And the last time that school of thought was taken to its near conclusion, quite a lot of Jews found themselves on the wrong side of a gas chamber.

I reiterate, the foreigners come here, cos they have been welcomed by our government. In most countries, the government are more or less representative of its electorate’s wishes. it’s not the foreigners’ fault for thinkingh this may be so here as well. However, the whole situation has been handled badly from the word go. If our Parliamentary representatives gave a damn about us, or perhaps were even slightly concerned about whether they would return after the next GE, they may considered integration policies. or even this very revolutionary idea: Jobs for citizens first…Foreigners 2nd. And of course the foreigners themselves are not without all blame…there are those amongst their numbers who think they have no need to integrate with the locals. It’s not surprising that Singaporeans are pissed of. But that doesn’t mean that we have to become bigotted. I thought prejudice was something we didn’t aspire to. Oh by the way, I think we all found out yesterday that ‘based on justice and equality’ is just an aspiration, not something that’s actually practiced. But that’s a completely different thread.

I get your point about the ‘taking to the streets’ issue. Nobody wants to see running battles with riot police on our streets. But a protest doesn’t have to be violent. More often than not, it’s a bunch of pple marching to show the government that they are unhappy about something, and that they have enough numbers behind them, for it to be considered seriously. But i suppose our S’pore system is different. One of our Ministers previously mentioned that if you want to change a law, then you have to get elected to parliament, and then try to get it changed there. That’s going to prove a bit difficult as there are only 84 seats going, and some of them have got long term reservations (not by expats). It’s a sad state of affairs, when citizens can’t show their disagreement to certain legislation or policy. Even worse, when the elected representatives don’t care.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t really blame Singaporeans for being so emotional about this. Good leaders shape good society. But we seem to have the highest paid clowns as ours. If they had given a damn about us they wouldn’t have mismanaged the situation so insensitively. The PM waxed lyrical about racial harmony. But he seriously must be on another planet, if he doesn’t realise that his government’s policy with regards to flooding S’pore with foreigners, is leading to all kinds of tension, including racial tension. But I do hope that Singaporeans do not somehow get pushed towards an Ultra Right Wing stance or a national Socialist one. Be rude to the foreigner who can’t be bothered to integrate…..or better still try and get them to integrate (ok that might be a bit too idealistic at this point) But don’t completely shun all foreigners. Some of them….just like some of us….can be quite pleasant actually. Being known as a racist, bigotted country, is not a very nice thing. It reflects very badly on us. And whatever mistakes the clowns at the top make, we should not allow our society to become globally despised .

Secondly, who actually caused this xenophobic mentality? What is the root cause for such “us” vs “them” issues? Pls read my posting at #15 — it is deliberate policies starting from the Stop-at-2.

We can beat the brains out of each other, have high unemployment of locals, low wages, need-for-talents-so-must-import argument, etc… Classical divide and conquer that have absolutely no ill-impact for the ruling class. As long as GDP is upwards, the garhem won’t give a shit to either locals or foreigners. The people just have to live with the effects of the policies as best they can.

but suddenly, the floodgates opened and everywhere you go, there are more foreigners than s’poreans around. can you blame s’poreans for developing this supposed xenophobia? this is a shock to us. moreover, govt kept telling us these are talents. but in fact, many of those that i have encountered, esp those from middle kingdom, are all trash! they have no respect for this country. they do not make an effort to assimilate to our culture. if you take public transport, you will realise that most of the time, pple who took up the reserved seats are foreigners, not s’poreans. many of them are crude and brash with no sense of hygiene. impressions count and when you have met one too many, it becomes fixed.

honestly, i hate the foreigners, but i hate the pap even more for subjecting us citizens to these. i no longer feel any bond to this country and does not think this is my country. i can admit that i’ve become very sceptical and sneer at anything the pap says. i believe they have a hidden agenda in everything they do, their concern is not for the pple, it’s all money talks.

I am glad that the comments posted here are xenophobic and borders on bigotry. It shows that Singaporeans do care a lot for their country – built by their parents’ bare hands and life of toil – and what is becoming of it.

Many have lambasted Foreigner for his comments and I am sure you know why since you have correctly pointed out that the system here favours the foreigner more than the locals. Instead of sympathizing with our plight, this fair-minded foreigner decided to pour scorn on us and our society. What’s even more unacceptable is his provocation that we should do something about the injustice and ‘protest’ (which I read as taking to the streets).

Supposing Singaporeans do take to the streets, I can bet my last dollar that this foreign chap will be sitting in the comfort of his high-rise dwelling laughing at us while shitting in his pants at the same time. Do you honestly think he cares for what we are going through? Why would he want to change things if he is so well-taken care of by the Singapore government? That is why some of us felt so insulted and have told him to sh** off.

“Learning to accept that pple can have different views is the mark of a society that is ready to exercise certain freedoms responsibly” : Fireblade

We can accept differing views if the views expressed are properly deliberated after careful reflection, and not wantonly echoed from some dubious sources, like the other table in a coffee-shop.

When you left Singapore 12 years ago, I believe you left with the echoes of LKY’s words ringing in your ears – that smart people like you should venture abroad so that when you return, you will bring along with you a vast set of experience that would benefit the country. Unfortunately, after you left, the GCT era took over and while you were happily toiling away – with LKY’s words still buzzing in your ears – our nice guy GCT decided to prostitute himself and the country away for extra dollars and dubious talents.

Now that reality has sunken in when you realized that you have been hoodwinked – like most of us are coming to realize about LKY – the least I would expect of you is to understand the plight of your fellow countrymen. If you can do this, then you will also realize that we do not give a damn about the sentiments and feelings of the foreigner standing or sitting next to us. To hell with them and get the hell out of MY home. They are not welcomed, not even for the tourist dollar. We want our home back, that’s all we are asking. This is our ‘proper place”….

“It is not them, but the system that keeps Singaporeans in their proper place”: Fireblade

On a lighter note, your account of the struggle you faced looking for employment here just serves to underline the xenophobia and bigotry of Singaporeans. However, they is not misplaced.

The solution? As someone pointed out – we should all give the foreigner a real hard time and get them out. This will be the most telling message we can give to this government and it is better than taking to the streets.

I don’t think they can even get past the stage of having outstanding ratios of :
(a) (# of foreigners granted PR and converted to Singapore citizens)/ (total # of foreigners who are PRs)
(b) (# of foreigners as PRs)/ (total # of foreigners excluding tourists)

i am f**king pissed with system here dont give a damn on our own people when comes to bread and butter issue.

just make sure that my constituency is walk over othwise any dick, tom and harry for oppt party, you can count on me for 1 vote.