The police in neighbouring Niger Republic have arrested a
Nigerian carrying 4.6m Euros (N1.05bn) in cash. The man
was arrested at the Diori Hamani Airport in Niamey, the
capital of Niger, en route Dubai in the United Arab Emirate.
The Nigerien police said they suspected that the man was
fleeing with the money in order to avoid being caught by the
administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, who has been
prosecuting an anti-corruption campaign since assumption of
office on May 29.
They also expressed worry that there had been an upsurge in
the number of Nigerians trafficking huge sums of money in
cash through the neighbouring country.
The police in Niger are already working on the suspicion that
the money traffickers have accomplices in the country.
The arrest of the Nigerian has been a big news item in the
Nigerien newspapers and television stations.
Curiously the authorities here on Wednesday claimed
ignorance of the money seizure in the neighbouring country
though the Customs officers in Niger were already kicking
against repatriating the cash to Nigeria.
A media report in Niger on Saturday said the National Union of
Customs Officers at a press briefing “denounced the request of
the Nigerian authorities” to return the seized money.
The Customs official said there had been several similar
seizures in Niamey from people trafficking money from Nigeria,
putting the amount that had been so seized in several billions
of naira.
They said the seized money had been mainly in dollars, euros
and pounds sterling, asking the Niger authorities to allow the
Customs officials to do their job without interference.
When contacted, the Senior Special Adviser to the President on
Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, said he could not
speak on the development because his brief was to speak for
the President.
He therefore referred one of our correspondents to the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs.
“I speak for the President. On this kind of issues, I will advice
that you speak with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” he said.
At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the officials denied
knowledge of the seizure in Niger Republic. The ministry’s
spokesperson, Ogbole Ahmedu-Ode, said the ministry had not
received official communication on the arrest of any Nigerian.
“I am hearing about this incident for the first time from you,
we have not received any communication on the matter from
any quarters,” he said over the telephone.
Calls to the Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Immigration
Service, Emeka Obua, did not elicit any response.
He also did not respond to text messages to his mobile
telephone on the issue.
The Nigerien embassy in Abuja could not be reached for
comment on Wednesday as calls to the mission’s phone lines
failed to connect.
The spokesman for the Nigerian Customs Service, Mr Wale
Adeniyi could not be reached for comments as text message
and repeated calls made to his mobile line were not replied as
of the time (8.30pm) of filling this report.
But a senior official of the Service told one of our
correspondents in confidence that the issue had yet to be
brought to the attention of the agency.
The official said since the matter was a diplomatic issue, there
were protocols that must be adhered to before the customs
could step in.
The official said, “As we speak now, the matter hasn’t been
drawn to our attention. This is a diplomatic matter that has to
be treated with caution in order to avoid diplomatic row
between both countries.
“The identity of the person in question has not been
established and it is the Nigerian embassy in Niger that would
verify that.
“After that is done, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be
notified before other security agencies would be invited on the
matter.
“So, it is not something that the Customs will jump into and
start investigating because the Customs in Niger don’t report
directly to us in Nigeria.”