Security staff steals $600 from traveller’s hand luggage at Kano airport

An aviation security staff at the screening point of the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano has been arrested for allegedly stealing $600 from an intending passenger’s hand luggage.

A source at the airport told Daily Times that the Kogi state-born GL 8 staff, identified as Hassan Mohammed stole the money from a bag while the owner was undergoing a pat down.

“A male passenger dropped his bag and walked through the metal detector. After the passenger, had dressed up, he picked up his bag and noticed that it was not properly zipped. He hurriedly opened it and noticed that some money had missed from his bundle of dollar bills.

It was $600. He raised an alarm. Mohammed and one other staff became the prime suspects. When both men were checked, they found the money on Mohammed. We collected the money and handed it over to the owner who left immediately as he was almost late to catch his flight,” said the source.

On interrogation, Mohammed was said to have confessed that he saw through an x-ray machine that there was some money in the bag and had to open and take some of it while the passenger was being screened.

He said Mohammed who is barely two years old in the system was reprimanded verbally and transferred from the international screening point to the hajj and cargo section of the airport.

“Aviation security staff at MAKIA do a lot of things that passengers may not expect. Incident of stealing from passengers’ luggage is commonplace here. Only vigilant air travelers are able to detect that their luggage have been tampered with. Those who do not suspect anything before leaving the screening point mourn their fate when they get to their destinations,” the source added.

When contacted, the acting general manager, corporate affairs of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu said the matter was being investigated.