The Police Command at the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, has uncovered a seven-man syndicate that issues fake COVID-19 negative certificates to unwary travellers at the airport.
The commissioner, Airport Command, Mr. Bature Umar who disclosed this to journalists yesterday said five suspects – Archibong Idonrenyin, Moses Samuel, Popoola Adewale, Wale Aderele and Abdulmalik Ibrahim – were arrested while two others were at large.
He gave the names of the escapees as Shehu Imam and Adeola Dalington who, according to him, are staff of Sky Blue Services Limited, a cleaning company at the airport.
The police said the syndicate majors in selling fake COVID-19 negative certificates unsuspecting travellers within the international wing of the airport.
He said on February 19, 2021, a British Airways passenger, Michael Osagbogun was defrauded of N50, 000 for COVID-19 test.
According to the commissioner, one of the suspects had approached Osagbogun promising to get Covid-19 negative test certificate for him.
He said Adewale and Darlington, who know the airport environment well due to the nature of their jobs allegedly, took the victim to one of the toilet facilities where N50, 000 was obtained from him under the pretext of producing a valid Covid-19 negative certificate for the victim.
Umar also stated that one of the suspects took the victim to DAT cybercafé at No. 4, Oriyomi Street, Ikeja where a fake Covid-19 negative certificate was eventually procured for him.
However, he said despite paying the sum, the victim who was on his way to London, was denied boarding by the officials of the airline after presenting the COVID-19 document at the BA counter.
He said the victim raised the alarm immediately which led to the arrest of four suspects and a guarantor to one of the two fleeing suspects.
The commissioner said a combined team from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Nigeria Police Force and Aviation Security (AVSEC) ambushed the suspects and arrested them.
On interrogation, Umar said the suspects confessed to the crime, but claimed it was their first time of doing it.
However, the commissioner said further investigations by the police revealed that the suspects had been in the business several months.
He vowed that the command would not relent in exposing criminal activities within the airport.
“Upon interrogation, the suspects confessed to the crime and the sum of N50, 000, which they obtained from the victim was recovered from them, while the computer used for the crime has been impounded and will be used as exhibit in the court of law.
“The passenger as far as we are concerned is a victim. He was the one that reported the case to us after he was denied boarding by the officials of the airline. So far, the suspects are providing information that will aid investigation to the police,” he added.
He said the suspects would be arraigned in court on Friday (today).
He advised air travellers to be wary of activities of criminals within the airport.
