Cleaner Caught With N53m At Lagos Airport

An airport cleaner has been arrested with the sum of $271,135 (about
N53m) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, it has
been learnt.

The suspect was arrested by the aviation security personnel of the
Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria while trying to carry the huge
sum of money through the screening point.

The airport worker, named Mr. Tijani Owolabi, works with one of the
cleaning contractors at the airport, according to a FAAN statement.

The statement quoted the Deputy General Manager, Corporate Affairs,
FAAN, Mr. Onyekwere Nnaekpe, as saying that some of the foreign
currency was found on Owolabi while the rest was recovered from the
sanitary bucket he was holding while trying to pass through screening
machine.

Nnaekpe said the agency suspected that Owolabi was conveying the
currency to an accomplice at the airside of the airport.

The statement by the FAAN read in part, "Aviation security personnel
of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria today September 3, 2015
prevented the trafficking of a total sum of 271,135 American dollars
through the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja.

"The sum was found on a worker with one of the cleaning contractors at
the airport, Mr. Tijani Owolabi, during a pat down at one of the
screening points at 'D' Finger of the international terminal.

"The airport cleaner who was suspected to be conveying the foreign
currency to an accomplice at the sterile area of the terminal, was
immediately apprehended by aviation security staff on duty and handed
over to the appropriate security agencies at the airport for further
investigation."

The development came barely two weeks after an Arik Air flight
attendant, Mr. Chika Udensi, was arrested at Heathrow Airport in
London with 20 kilogrammes of cocaine.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency later arrested his
accomplice, Oliver Ikechukwu Chibuzor Oliver, an Arik Air catering
worker, who smuggled the drug among catering supplies into the
aircraft for Udensi.

NDLEA and other security agencies said they had increased security
surveillance at the nation's airports, especially the international
airports.

-PUNCH