Cleaner Caught With $271,135 At Murtala Mohammed 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.

Source: PunchNg