How i spent 3 days at Lagos airport after my things were stolen - Victim

By Ehi Ekhator, Naija Center News

The stealing of passengers’ items at the Lagos International Airport is on the rise despite the complaints by the various victims and promises to recover their items which turned out to be empty promises.

A 52-year-old Germany based Nigerian, Festus Oduware Ekhator had his share of the unpleasant circumstance on the 6th of April while on his way back to his base from Nigeria.

According to Festus who spoke with NAIJA CENTER NEWS (NCN) corespondent, he arrived the airport and was asked to check in, he requested for his bag which contained his wallet but they promised the bag would be brought back to him. He finally got the bag after boarding. But he noticed that his 2500 euro, N10,000 and others were gone.

He said: ”On the 6th of Aprill, with my return ticket of Air France. With my checked – in luggage, I wanted my wallet that forgot in one of the luggage, then asked Airline staffs to help retrieved the one containing the Money and wallet. One staff called Tina then called the Baggage Handlers to get the bag out, waited for quite a while to find out, they didn’t bring back the bag. I later got it at the Gate of bording. With frantic confidence, i was made to board without access to the luggage but pressure from me forced Tina who led me to the tarmac. Gotten there, I found out that my items were missing and my Money wallet was empty. 2500 euros, 10,000 Naira and my samsung mobile telephone was stolen. I was very angry and raised alarm, everyone gathered but none paid attention to me. I asked for Airline Manager, no one cared, then ran to Airline Captain to lay my complain, group of baggage handlers forced me out of the flight. The struggles attracted Security Agent who tend to investigate the matter. I was left stranded for 4 days at the Airport.

When asked by NAIJA CENTER NEWS what he did after he realized his things were gone, he sad ”when i discovered my items had been stolen, like i said, the security agents came at the last minute. I recounted the whole episodes from counter to flight. Since there was less to do that night., the next day, i wrote a letter requesting for the video play back of the incident for better Investigation but after 3rd day before i could find out Management nonchalant Attitude to Investigation.

According to a security source at the airport who spoke with NAIJA CENTER NEWS (NCN) said Festus checked in around 9pm and requested for his bag which he said contained some personal items. But he was told to be patient as the bag will be brought to him later.

The source said: ” The man (Festus) came that day to board a flight, he had two bags, so he was told to check all his bags in. Immediately he checked the bags in, he remembered that one of the bags contained his personal things like money, phone and other things. So he was calling them, he called one of the staff, and they promised him they will get it. We were surprised that after two hours, he came around 9pm, he stayed till around 11pm when the plane was supposed to leave. They brought the bag to him at the gate of the aircraft. When he checked the bag, he found out that all the items in the bag that he was begging them to bring out were all gone.

“At that point, he became angry because he had already told them earlier that he needed the bag. The airline said they won’t allow him in, but he was begging that he was supposed to go to work the next day. The airline said it’s as if he was making noise, and that he can’t go with them anymore.

”The airline added that he did not obey the rules. The truth is that, as at that point, the man was supposed to be angry. We followed him to the airline, including different officials, the special manager, but they said the pilot had already written that his behaviour not acceptable.

”He spent about 3 days at the airport stranded before the airline called their office in Germany finally carried him. He left with Emirate instead of Air France who rejected him after his things were stolen.”

The source added that the Airport Authority intervened by begging for him to be carried and noted that his stolen items were never investigated or found. The source also said that Festus requested for video playback but he was told that the cameras at the airport do not have playbacks.

It could be recalled that several people had earlier complained of the stealing and the airport authorities nonchalant attitudes towards investigating the incidents, which almost make victims believe that it’s an organized stealing involving the bag handlers and the airport authorities.

In 2011 June, Mrs Tukunbo who arrived Lagos with Virgin Nigeria from Accra, Ghana had a related experience at the Lagos International Airport, Explaining her woes, she said ‘My luggage arrived in Lagos with the zip broken. $700 I had carefully placed at the bottom of the case was removed, along with other clothing items that had been tampered with.’

Another victim, MRs Schmidt who flew from South Africa said ”I flew with South African Airways (SAA) from Johannesburg to Lagos last week, ‘When I collected my baggage, I was shocked to discover a tear in the left side of the case and my new digital camera stolen. Somewhere between my luggage leaving the plane and coming to the conveyor belt, it had been tampered with.’ She has heard no word of the missing camera since. Incidentally, a woman on the same SAA flight with Mrs Schmidt made a similar complaint. Her mobile phone and $200 had been taken.

The concern voiced by numerous passengers lay not just in the pain of stolen items, but in the lack of response from the affected airlines. ‘I complained bitterly to the Virgin Nigeria airline staff but it’s almost a month later and nothing has happened,’ said Miss Boateng, who had local currency to the tune of $2000 stolen during her flight from Accra to Lagos. ‘The very nonchalance of their attitude makes me wonder if they are in collusion with these thieves,’ she added. Mr Gugulethu, who flew with SAA to Lagos and lost his newly purchased laptop, has a similar suspicion. ‘I believe they are working together. The spoil is equally shared, which explains the lack of action thereafter. You just fill out a form which you know will end in nothing actually happening. It’s a sad scenario and really discourages people from visiting Nigeria.’

NAIJA CENTER NEWS (NCN) also interacted with the Terminal Head of the NCAA at the airport who refused to give her name the moment she realized she was talking with a reporter on phone. She initially denied knowing about the Festus and his missing items. She alleged that she was not at the airport as at the time the incident happened.

But when asked if she was indirectly saying she is not up to the task she was assigned for, she quickly agreed to have known about the problem the next day. She alleged that she had complained to the appropriate quarter but had not received any response.

Few weeks ago, A 26 year old airport cleaner, Chibuzor Onuegbe  allegedly smuggled N242 million out of the baggage store of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) undetected. 

The stolen money was packed in a bag in US dollar denomination totalling $1.5million which belongs to a middle aged woman (names withheld).  She was said to have deposited the sum at the MMIA baggage room on October 30, 2013 for safe keeping.  She discovered that the money was missing when she wanted to pick it.

How i spent 3 days at Lagos airport after my things were stolen - Victim