» Cleaner Caught With N53M 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.