One Mr. Tijani Owolabi, a cleaner at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, was Thursday arrested with foreign currency of $271,135 in his possession.

The suspect was apprehended by airport security personnel of the Presidential Task force, Aviation Security Officers, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), who were all on duty at the airport.

A source who pleaded anonymity, told DAILY POST that:

“Tijani Owolabi, a cleaner at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, was arrested at about 11 a.m on Thursday, as he tried to carry a huge sum of money through the screening machine point at the ‘D’ Finger of the international terminal. He had also hidden some of the money inside the sanitary bucket he was holding.

“The suspect was apprehended by airport security personnel who counted the money and arrived at $271,135. In an attempt to run, he was pinned down and handed over to the fitting security agency for further investigation,” our source disclosed.

The Deputy General Manager, Corporate Affairs of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mr. Onyekwere Nnaekpe, confirmed the arrest in a statement 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 the screening point.

Nnaekpe debunked that the agency suspected that Owolabi was perhaps conveying the currency to an accomplice at the air side of the airport.

His statement reads in part:

“Aviation security personnel of FAAN on 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.

“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.”