Less than a week after an air passenger identified as Ogeneochuko David was apprehended on Ibom Air flight Q1300 for allegedly stealing a laptop during a flight from Lagos to Abuja, another airline, Air Peace, on Wednesday, said it apprehended a passenger, Vitalis Nwabuzor, on-board Abuja-Port Harcourt flight P47192 on July 27, 2023, for allegedly stealing N1million cash.
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, however, released the suspect on bail, saying the chance of prosecuting him was slim as the owner of the money was unwilling to follow up on the case.
Olisa stressed that Air Peace staff will continue to be security-conscious and urged passengers to be more careful with their personal items onboard.
