FAAN OFFICIAL ARRESTED WITH $1.4M AT LAGOS AIRPORT

The arrest of a security official of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Akinyele Adetule, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos when he attempted to launder $1.4 million (N218m), has confirmed long-held belief that those who know the inner working of the airport are among members of syndicates operating at the airport.Click on read more below to

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The arrest of Adetule took place less than a month after the EFCC arrested a 24-year-old man, Mr. Abubakar Sheriff, at the same airport with $7 million (N1.1 billion).The Head of Operations, EFCC, Mr. Iliyasu Kwarbai, said the suspect was able to pass through Nigeria Customs Service and National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) security checks because he was wearing his identity card and therefore did not draw any suspicion.

“The suspect is a FAAN security guard. He wore his tag and was thus able to move freely in the airport without drawing suspicion. He was carrying a bag and it went through the scanner. It is curious that such a huge sum went through the scanner undetected. Or was it a case of conspiracy and collusion?

“The suspect passed through NDLEA and Customs and he went to the waiting area; but he started making phone calls instead of proceeding to board his flight. We accosted him and noticed that his bag was heavy.“When we searched him, we saw the large sum of money, which he said did not belong to him and that he was only trying to telephone the owner who never showed up,” EFCC said in a statement.

Adetula said he had worked for FAAN for over five years and he was promised N10, 000 if he could successfully get past security with the money.

Reacting to the incident, FAAN in a statement admitted that Adetula was a staff member of the organisation, stressing that he was not on duty when he was caught with the money.

“The suspect, who is an employee of the security directorate, was neither on duty nor on an official assignment. He was consequently accosted by security personnel at the Customs Currency Declaration Desk and has since been handed over to the EFCC custody for investigation,” the statement, which was signed by FAAN’s Head of Corporate Communication, Yakubu Dati, said.

The agency also commended the joint efforts of the EFCC, Customs, Police and other security personnel who aided his arrest, and assured them of its unalloyed assistance in unravelling the crime, “particularly as the staffer was acting on his own accord”.

According to aviation security experts, for years, currency smugglers have been using security operatives at the Lagos airport to facilitate the nefarious activity through which over N3 trillion has been smuggled out of the country since the past 13 years of democratic governance.