Passenger Caught Stealing N1m On Abuja-PH Flight, Hand Over To Police

Akeem Oduyoye

Air Peace airline has confirmed that a passenger on Abuja-Port Harcourt flight identified as Vitalis Nwabuzor was caught stealing the sum of N1 million.

Air Peace on Wednesday, 1 August 2023 announced that the incident happened on July 27, 2023.

This happened after another theft case was reported on Ibom Air with a passenger caught with a laptop belonging to a fellow passenger.

Spokesperson of Air Peace, Stanley Olisa, disclosed that Nwabuzor stole the said amount contained in a brown envelope but was caught by the owner of the money who called the attention of the crew

 “During the flight, Nwabuzor took another passenger’s computer bag from the overhead cabin, took the brown envelope containing the money (N1m), 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 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,” Olisa said.

He added that Air Peace staff will continue to be security conscious and urged passengers to be more careful with their personal items on board.

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.