Murtala Muhammad Int’l Airport Janitor Steals N244million, Escapes To UK

A 26-year old man named Chibuzor Onuegbe is currently wanted by the Lagos Police in connection with the theft of $1.5million from the Muritala Muhammad International Airport.

Until his disappearance, Onuegbe was a janitor at the airport. The money reportedly belongs to an unnamed woman, who kept the money at the airport’s baggage store for safe keeping.

The police have arrested his accomplice Ifeanyi Francis, his girlfriend Chioma Obinabor and his elder brother Kalu Faith Onuegbe, and investigations have revealed that Onuegbe had
fled the country to the United Kingdom.

Francis told the police:

“I met Chibuzor early last year when I traveled to Enugu and we became friends. I am aware that he works as a cleaner at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos. Sometime in October, he called me that there is a job that he wants to execute and I will earn so much money.  I traveled down to Lagos with the excuse that I wanted to visit my sister who lives in Lagos.

He told me that he wanted to smuggle out some abandoned luggage from the baggage store at the international airport. He gave me a bag containing old laptops and clothes. He also gave me a tag ticket which was attached to the bag.

The deal was that I would get to the airport as early as 6am and move to the baggage store and drop the bag.  I will tell the store keeper that I want to register the bag and will be back in evening to pick it up.

As agreed on October 30, 2013, I went to the baggage store with the bag that already had a tag. The store keeper asked me to pay N300 for a day and N600, if I am to pick it the next day. I paid N300 and dropped the bag. Later in the evening as agreed, I came to the airport and picked the bag. When I saw Chibuzor, he told me that the deal did not work out, and that I will be repeating the same process.”

The next day as agreed, Francis went through the same process and dropped the bag. In the evening at about 7 pm, he went back and picked the bag. Francis goes on with his statement below:

“I discovered that the bag was unusually heavy.  Since I knew what was on ground, I pretended that it was the same weight. It was easy to pick the bag because I had a tag and a ticket.

I quickly moved and joined Chibuzor who was already with a taxi.  I asked him what was in the bag and he told me to calm down that I will get to know. We arrived his street and stopped in an area where cars were parked. He opened the bag; it was then that I realized that it contained bundles of dollar notes.

I was speechless because the amount was much. He told me that as a cleaner, he had access to the baggage room. All he did was to unlock my bag to which he had the key and transfer the bag of money into my own bag.  He told me to calm down that there is a lot to gain and that he needs to contact his friends at the airport before the money will be shared.  Those friends, he explained were the ones who gave him information that such amount of money was in the baggage room and the color of the bag.

He tried to close the bag and it was difficult, so he had to remove some bundles into another bag. We heard the voice of some boys coming towards us, so Chibuzor hurriedly left the spot and moved into their house. He forgot that he kept some money in the bag that I was holding. He rushed out and promised to call me for my share”.

According to him, as soon as he got home Chibuzor realised that he was carrying the naira equivalent of N60 million. Francis further said.....

“I decided to keep that money since Chibuzor did not remember that it was in my bag.  He called me later in the night demanding the money. I denied and he told me that I have taken my share. He switched off his phone and till date, I have not seen or heard from him.”

Investigations into Onuegbe’s whereabouts are still ongoing.