A man Mr. Tijani Owolabi, who was identified as a cleaner, was stopped from smuggling $271,135 (approximately ₦54.23m) out of the country through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on Thursday.
The Deputy General Manager, Public Affairs, of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mr Nnaekpe Onyekwere, while speaking with journalists, said the cash concerned was found on “a worker with one of the cleaning contractors at the airport” during a comprehensive screening at the ‘D’ Finger of the international terminal.
Onyekwere explained that “Part of the money was found on Owolabi while the rest was recovered from the sanitary bucket he was trying to pass through screening.”
Mr. Owolabi, 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 investigation.
No passenger is allowed to travel with more than $10, 000, and any amount above that is expected to be declared with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).