Less than a week after an air passenger identified as Ogeneochuko David was apprehended on Ibom Air’s flight Q1300 for allegedly stealing a laptop during the flight from Lagos to Abuja, Air Peace, on Wednesday, said it apprehended another passenger, Vitalis Nwabuzor, on-board Abuja-PHC flight P47192 on July 27, 2023, for allegedly stealing N1 million.
In a press statement made available to LEADERSHIP, the spokesman of the airline, Stanley Olisa, stated that, Nwabuzor stole the said amount contained in a brown envelope but was caught by the owner of the money with the intervention of the airline’s staff.
“During the flight, Nwabuzor took another passenger’s computer bag from the overhead cabin, took the brown envelope containing the money, put the computer bag in another luggage compartment and moved to an empty seat at the back of the aircraft.
“He was one of the first few to disembark despite the announcement of proper disembarkation sequence by the crew. He was eventually caught and the money retrieved from him. Different currencies in different denominations were found on him”, the statement said.
The passenger was handed over to the security operatives of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, for onward transfer to the Police for further investigations. The police confirmed to have released him on bail and said the chance of prosecution is slim as the owner of the money is unwilling to follow up.
Olisa stressed that Air Peace staff will continue to be security conscious and urged passengers to be more careful with their personal items on board.
The objective of that facility is to support the utilisation of natural gas; we have written to CBN since last year way ahead of subsidy removal, we have had meetings convened by the former Finance Minister and the CBN, NNPC and other stakeholders and we told them the solution to subsidy removal can be implemented in one day.
“Nigerians, vehicle owners and the state government should be given access to borrow N200,000 to convert their vehicle or tricycle from that N250 billion. That will catalyse investments along the value chain because you need to have a large pull of converted vehicles to justify the investment to deliver that gas to every part of the country.
“The solution is here, we have been preaching this since last year, the government does not have to do anything new; there is funding at CBN to support this. The only way natural gas can be a substitute is by providing loans for vehicle users.
“If we transit just 10 per cent of the 48 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petrol we consume a day to natural gas, it will save Nigerians two billion naira everyday or N730 billion naira every year.
“Just by transitioning 10 per cent of the petrol we consume today to natural gas and what that means is that, we can deliver natural gas through the IPMAN platform in Kebbi, in Borno at N200 per litre equivalent,” he said.
In his remarks, chairman of the Committee, Hon. Babajimi Benson said petrol is the lifeline of the Nigerian economy and an increase in the price will affect the price of food on which Nigerians spend 80 per cent of their income.
“This is why we fear that this recent increase will further push Nigerians deeper below the poverty line. This committee is confident that the government means well for Nigerians and has its justification for this action. This is what we want to hear at this investigative hearing. Nigerians need to understand the rationale behind this action.
“But beyond that, they need to be assured that this price hike will not have a more devastating effect on their livelihoods. We need to be able to convince Nigerians that their interest will always be protected.
“We therefore urge you to be open and objective in your submissions and provide the necessary information that will guide the committee in reaching a decision that will be mutually beneficial for the government and Nigerians in general since the primary goal of governance is the welfare of citizens,” he said.
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