Apprentice runs to London after stealing N244 million at International airport

Francis

Onugbe

Ifeanyi Francis has the look of a drowning man written all over his face. He could feel the hang’s man noose slowly tightening around his neck.

He was arrested for travelling all the way from east, down to Lagos State, to infiltrate the Murtala Mohammed International Airport’s baggage store, making away with 1.5 million dollars, belonging to an import and export company.

Desperately clutching at straws, Francis, 25, made a last effort at extricating himself from the crime. He said: “I didn’t know Onugbe invited me to come and steal. He said he would explain everything to me later. I only got to know that he used me to steal dollars from the baggage store after I had collected the bag.”

The investigation and search for the missing dollars took months, with the police detectives travelling to different parts of the eastern part of the country to make series of arrest.

Investigators believed that the crime was carried out successfully because the prime suspect, Chibuzor Onugbe, 26, an apprentice, learning the rudiments of clearing and forwarding, knew that the company used to sometimes keep foreign currencies at the baggage store of the international airport. They also believed he had been planning the crime for long, only waiting and bidding the right time to strike.

Before the police caught up with him, Francis and the prime suspect, Chibuzor Onugbe, had shared the money.

Francis, 25, used his own share of the loot to buy some plots of land, began building a six bedroom flat and bought a flashy Pathfinder Jeep.

Onugbe on the other hand, bought several plots of lands through his girlfriend, Chioma Obinnabo, 30, and brother, Kalu Faith Onugbe, 34, in choice areas of Port Harcourt and Imo State.

When the company first reported the case of the missing dollars, operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, Lagos State Police Command, led by the Officer in Charge of SARS, SP. Abba Kyarri, commenced investigation and narrowed the hunt down to Onugbe, who had suddenly became elusive.

When they could not locate Onugbe, they went after his elder brother, Kalu, residing in Port Harcourt.

By the time the detectives got there, the fleeing Onugbe was yet to make contact with his elder brother. While being quizzed on all he knew about the missing money, Kalu truthfully told the cops that he had not seen nor heard from his younger brother.

He promised to work with the policemen to arrest his brother and return the money to the frantic owner.

When Onugbe finally went to Kalu, rather than call the police, Kalu has accepted N10 million as gift from Onugbe, while he happily assisted Onugbe to begin buying several plots of land.

Onugbe also gave him most of the money to keep for him. Three days later, Onugbe collected the money from him and handed it Chioma.

By the time the police zeroed in on Ongube’s location and moved in, he had travelled to London, ostensibly to complete his education.

A police source said: “The incident happened on closing hour of October 30, 6pm 2013 and discovered the following morning at about 6am. According to the owner of the company, a woman, on that fateful day, there was 1.5 million dollars, equivalent to N242 million, to be used for transaction, but the company couldn’t carry out the transaction that day. The money was kept in the baggage store of the international airport, which is at the airport arrival hall. She had hoped to pick it the following morning. In the morning, it was nowhere to be found. They alerted police.

“Police started investigation and some suspects were arrested. We got to the point where we arrested one Ifeanyi Francis. He is one of the prime suspects who came in from east to do the operation. He confessed to the crime and the sum of 224,240 dollars was recovered from him. He kept it with his elder sister in Owerri, Imo State, along with other properties, including two lands which he had used part of the money to buy.

“He had already erected a six bedroom flat and bought a Pathfinder Jeep. He confessed further, that his cohort, Chibuzor Onugbe was the person who contracted him to come down to Lagos and carry out the operation. The said Onugbe works at the baggage unit of the airport and thus knew the terrain. He’s a clearing and forwarding apprentice and had unhindered access to the baggage unit of the airport.”

According to investigators, the greater part of the money stolen was with Onugbe. It was after the arrest of Francis, that he squealed that Onugbe told him that he had taken the money to Kalu.

The SARS team immediately left Lagos and made a beeline for Port Harcourt, where they nabbed Kalu.

The police source continued: “We went after the said Kalu. He had however been earlier invited over the missing dollars, but denied knowledge of his brother’s whereabouts. Kalu later bolted but we finally got him. He confessed that he took some of the money but said he couldn’t remember the specific amount. He said Onugbe took it from him to his girlfriend Chioma Obinnabo.

“Before we got to Kalu, he had already assisted his brother to acquire a three and half plots of land at Oyin-Igbo in Port Harcourt. He had also bought another two plots of lands and two detachable bungalows at Aba with the stolen money Onugbe gave to him.”

Based on Kalu’s confession, the policemen journeyed to Onitsha, Anambra State, in a hunt for Chioma. She was soon arrested.

“Chioma denied knowing Onugbe, but later opened up, saying that Onugbe asked her to buy some landed properties for him,” said the police. “She acquired a hectare, which is about six plots, running to N9 million and then four plots of land at choice areas, for N10million at Onitsha. Kalu said that Onugbe travelled to London with the remaining money.”

Police investigators also discovered that Kalu bought a CRV Jeep, rented an apartment of N500, 000 at Port Harcourt with part of his own share of the money.

Narrating how he got involved in the crime, Francis, who attended Government Technical College, Owerri, Imo State, where he studied engineering and later became a bricklayer, explained that his troubles started after he received a phone call from his friend Onugbe one fateful day in 2013.

His words: “I got a call from my friend Chibuzor Onugbe one fateful day last year. Onugbe and I became friends after we met at Enugu. When he called me that day, he said I should come to Lagos, that he had something for me to do.

“When I got to Lagos, he said that there was something he wanted me to do for him. He said that there was a bag he wanted me to pick for him from the company he worked at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport.

“I asked him the content of the bag; he said that I would know later. He brought a tag and a bag and said that he would take me to the company and that I should tell them that I wanted to bag my bag and that I should lie that I was travelling.

“He said that the tag-ticket he gave me was what would be tagged on the bag. He said that after I bagged the bag, I should leave, that he would give me a call to come and pick the bag again. When the baggage officials opened the bag Onugbe gave me to bag, it contained laptop and some clothes. They asked me how many days I wanted to leave the bag there, I said just a day as Onugbe asked me to say. I paid N300.”

Rather than continue to stay with Onugbe, who was managing a boys’ quarter with his brother-in-law in Lagos, Francis went to stay with his sister, who was quite shocked to see him. According to him, he did not tell anybody that he was coming to Lagos.

Francis said that at about 6pm that same day, Onugbe called and instructed him to come down again to Airport. When he got there, Onugbe told him that he should go and pick the bag from the baggage store.

“I picked the bag, but I didn’t open it. Onugbe told me that the plan didn’t work out, that what he wanted to put inside the bag didn’t work out,” said Francis. “I asked what, he said I would know later.”

Francis claimed to have been surprised when Onugbe asked him to go through the same process of taking the same bag to baggage store, to bag the following day.

“At about 7:30pm that day, he had called, saying that I should go down to the baggage store and collect the bag again. This time however, the bag was heavier. It was later I learnt Onugbe went to the baggage store, removed the money from the bag it was kept and transferred it into the bag I had stored at the baggage hall. The officials there believed I was taking out my bag which contained laptop and clothes. They didn’t know wands of dollars note had joined the clothes and laptop.”

When Francis walked out from the airport, Onugbe was already waiting for him impatiently. He had also flagged a taxi. Trying to be careful, Onugbe asked the taxi to drop them at a certain point on the road and  the two friends trekked the rest of the way.

Francis recalled: “I asked him again what was inside the bag and he pulled me away from the road and unzipped the bag. When he opened the bag, I was shocked. What I saw were wands of dollar notes. He asked me to go, that he would give me a call later. Before we parted, he took some of the dollar notes and stuffed them into a bag that was with me.”

The next day, Francis waited restively for Onugbe’s call. When the call did not come, Francis decided to pay Onugbe a surprised visit. Francis met Onugbe and there was a big row between them over the sharing formula, with Onugbe telling Francis that there were other people involved in the deal.

Francis also lied to Onugbe that the dollars he stuffed into his bag on the day they executed the deal, was returned to his bag. Onugbe did not believe him, leading to further row.

“When I got home, I checked the money and changed it. It came down to N60 million. I used part of it to buy two plots of lands for N4.5 million; I also started building a house.”

Asked what his parents said about his sudden acquisition of wealth, Francis said they didn’t know he was building.

Stating her own side of the story, Chioma said she did not know anything about the stolen money until police came to arrest her. It was however become apparent from police investigation that Onugbe met Chioma after he had stolen the money.

According to Chioma, a sales girl for her elder brother, Onugbe did not only lied to her that he was 30 years old, he had also lied to her that his name was Michael Okafor, a businessman, residing in Lagos. As the relationship progressed, Onugbe had promised to marry Chioma.

She said: “We met at ITC Motor Park on November, 2013. We boarded the same bus at Onitsha, heading to Owerri. He said he worked at airport. He paid for my fare that day. The fourth day, he invited me to a hotel and we had sex. As I was leaving, he gave me N20, 000. I went back to Onitsha. He later invited me again to another hotel at Owerri and gave me N50, 000. He invited me the third time and gave me N100, 000. During the Xmas period, I called him that I needed money for Xmas, he paid N230, 000 into my account.”

Chioma, who later broke down as she narrated her story, explained that in January 2014, Onugbe told her that he would be travelling to London, that he wanted her to buy some lands at Onitsha for him, which she did.

To acquire these lands, Onugbe gave her dollars, which was equivalent to N10 million.

“I bought four plots of land at Onitsha. I took the documents to him. He signed them and I took the counterfoil to the property people,” said Chioma. “He called me again, saying he wanted more lands. I also assisted him to buy more six plots for N9 million due to the location. He later travelled through Ghana to London. There was no time I lied to the police that I didn’t know him. When the police came, they asked me if I knew one Chibuzor Onugbe, I said no because the person I knew was Michael Okafor.”

Kalu on the other hand, said he did not alert police when his younger brother contacted him and brought the dollars to him because he had sought counsels from people and was told that it would morally wrong to assist police in the arrest of his blood brother.

Kalu, who works at Port Harcourt, recalled how Onugbe came with a bag filled with dollars, begging him to keep it for him.

He said: “I didn’t count the money. He said I should help him buy some lands. I bought a land for him for N5.250 million at Oyin-Igbo in PH. He said I should buy them in my name. I bought two detachable houses for him. He later came to collect the money. He gave me N10million for myself. It was a gift.”

Kalu said he spent days, ruminating whether or not to hand his brother to the police. “It was a very tough decision. You won’t understand because you were not in my shoes,” he said.

While the police have concluded arrangement to charge the suspect to court, a police source revealed that SARS will work with Interpol to catch Onugbe.