Suspected Thief Caught Inside Air Peace Plane After Stealing Passenger’s N1m

Air Peace has said a passenger on board one of its flights, who allegedly stole N1 million from another passenger’s bag, has been caught, the News Agency of Nigeria has reported.

The spokesperson for the airline, Stanley Olisa, in a statement on Wednesday, said that the incident took place on board the Abuja-PHC flight P47192 on July 27.

Olisa said the suspect stole the amount contained in a brown envelope, but was caught by the owner of the money with the intervention of the airline’s staff.

He explained that during the flight, the suspect took another passenger’s computer bag from the overhead cabin.

“He, thereafter, took the brown envelope containing the money, put the computer bag in another luggage compartment, and moved to an empty seat at the back of the aircraft”, Olisa explained.

The airline spokesperson said the suspect was one of the first few to disembark, despite the announcement of a proper disembarkation sequence by the crew.

He said the suspect was eventually caught and the money retrieved from him, with different currencies in different denominations found on him.

Olisa said the suspect was handed over to the security operatives of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria for onward transfer to the Police, for further investigations.

He said that the Police later confirmed to have released him on bail, but that the chance of prosecution was slim as the owner of the money was unwilling to follow up.