A 26 year
old airport cleaner, Chibuzor Onuegbe is on the run after
allegedly smuggled N242 million out of the baggage store of the Murtala
Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) undetected. He has since
relocated to the United Kingdom.
His accomplices, Ifeanyi Francis, his girl
friend Chioma Obinabor and his elder brother Kalu Faith Onuegbe have been
arrested for assisting the principal suspect to commit the crime and
flee the country.
According to the Sun,The stolen money was packed in a bag
in US dollar denomination totalling $1.5million which belongs to a middle aged
woman (names withheld). She was said to have deposited the sum at the
MMIA baggage room on October 30, 2013 for safe keeping. She discovered
that the money was missing when she wanted to pick it.
I got only N60m from the deal- Francis
Face to face with his interrogators, Francis
who claims to be an Engineering student at Government Technical College,
Owerri, Imo State confessed that he never knew the content of the bag until he
left the airport. In his words:
“I met
Chibuzor early last year when I travelled 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 travelled 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 7pm, he went back
and picked the bag.
“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 realised 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 colour 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 I was carrying the naira equivalent of N60 million.
“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.”
Armed with
his windfall, Francis travelled back to Owerri and invested his money
into acquiring properties. “I bought two plots of land, and built 6 blocks of
flat. I also rented a nice apartment and furnished it to taste. I also
acquired a pathfinder jeep. I do not know the whereabouts of Chibuzor, it was
when they arrested me that I was told that he is in UK.”
Chibuzor promised to marry me- girlfriend
As soon as Chibuzor realised that he was a rich
man overnight, one of the things he did was to date beautiful women. One
of such was Chioma Obinabor, who he met while he was travelling down to
Owerri.She was also arrested by the police, when investigations showed
that she assisted Chibuzor to acquire properties in Onitsha.
Chioma told Saturday Sun that since she was
still single, it was not abnormal for a man to approach her for relationship.
“Sometime
in November, I sat by his side on board an ITC bus heading for Owerri. We got
talking and exchanged phone numbers. He also paid my transport fare to
Owerri. The next day he called me and invited me to his hotel room, it was then
that he told me that he is a business man and that his office is at MMIA,
Lagos. We chatted and ended up having sex and when I was leaving he gave me
N20, 000 and promised to keep in touch. Few days later, he called me
again and gave me N50, 000 and our next meeting another N100, 000. We were so
much in love and he told me that I am the kind of wife that he dreamt that God
should bring his way. I was happy, because at 27, I should be married.
“Also
during Christmas period, he gave me N230, 000 for my shopping. This year,
he asked me to help him acquire a land in Onitsha. I was able to acquire 10
plots of land for N19 million at an area called ‘33’ in Onitsha.
He told me
that he was travelling to UK and would go through Ghana. His explanation was
that DANA airline goes to UK through Ghana. I never knew that he was running
away. I thought he was real, till the police arrested me. It was at the
police that I was told that he is a cleaner at the airportand most
importantly that he is 26 years old,”
I was confused when I saw the money- elder
brother
Also in the course of investigation, operatives
of SARS invited Chibuzor’s elder brother, Kalu who is based in Port Harcourt.
He was told that the police was looking for Chibuzor and pleaded with him to
assist them over the theft.
Unfortunately, as soon as Chibuzor visited him
with a bag full of dollars, Kalu decided to shield his brother from the police.
“After my
visit to SARS, Lagos, I was determined to hand over my brother to the police. I
even confided in my family members who told me that it is an abomination to be
the one to expose my family member. I was told that if SARS should catch him,
that he might be killed.
“Days after
that visit, Chibuzor came and handed me the bag and asked me to keep it safe.
I was terrified but happy that God had remembered our family. I was so
confused.
Three days
later he came back and collected the bag and gave me N10 million. I
also assisted him to acquire landed properties in Port Harcourt. He told me
that he was travelling to UK to further his education and
will be back very soon. I knew that he was travelling to UK, because he showed
me his Visa.
“I am
terribly sorry and willing to return everything that I got from him.
If you were in my shoes, I’m sure that you will protect your family,"
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