Adetula |
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has
apprehended an official of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, Mr. Akinyele
Adetula, for trying to launder $1.4m (N218m).
The arrest came less than a month after the
commission arrested a 24-year old man, Mr. Abubakar Sheriff, at the same
airport with $7m (N1.1bn).
Sunday PUNCH learnt that the suspect was
arrested at Murtala Mohammed Airport on Saturday.
According the Head of Operations, EFCC, Mr.
Iliyasu Kwarbai, the suspect was able to pass through Nigeria Customs Service
and National Drug Law Enforcement Agency security checks because he was wearing
his identity card and therefore did not draw any suspicion.
He said, “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.
“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.”
The EFCC authorities said the suspect was given
the money by one Mr. Ifeanyi Urama, a bureau de change operator who also
doubles as clearing and forwarding agent.
Urama, it was learnt, was recently granted bail
by the EFCC after he was arrested with $996,000 (N155m).
Urama was alleged to have given Adetula the
money, which belonged to a yet-to-be-identified person and Adetula was to help
the unknown person to get the money past security.
Adetula, who claims to have worked for FAAN for
over five years, said he was promised N10,000 if he could successfully get past
security.
The indigene of Ondo State said this was his
first time of committing such a crime.
He said, “Ifeanyi called me in the morning and
told me to help him to take the bag and gave me someone’s phone number and told
me to call the person once I get to the area where the airplane would board.
“I didn’t know the exact amount, but I knew the
money was much. I would have informed authorities of the amount of money I was
carrying but I was carried away by the phone call I was receiving.”
Kwarbai told Sunday PUNCH that money
launderers had begun to devise new means of beating security due to frequent
arrests by the commission.
He said he was surprised that the suspect was
able to pass the bag through the scanner without security agents raising the
alarm — a move which he said implied that officials at the airport were
beginning to connive with criminals.
He said the law stipulated that anyone attempting
to travel with over $10,000 (N1.56m) cash must inform security agents at the
airport and he/she must also be prepared to explain his/her source of
livelihood.
He noted that within a period of three weeks, the
commission had seized over $10.2m (N1.6bn) in Lagos alone.
“We appeal to airport officials and security
agents to report cases of money laundering to the commission, as this is
clearly economic sabotage,” he said.
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