By Gideon Njoku
On the 17th February, 2023, an Air Peace Airline Passenger who identified himself as Kunle Oni, was caught stealing bundles of money from the luggages of other passengers.
But for the vigilance of a couple of people, a number of passengers would have had a heartbreak on arrival to Lagos. For, at the time he was caught, he had already stolen bundles of the scarce new Naira notes and transferred them to his own hand luggage.
Kunle Oni was a passenger on the Airline’s morning flight, P47139, from the domestic wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja, to the Domestic Wing of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos.
Wearing a navy blue kaftan and a beret, his seat number was 20C.
It is not yet known the circumstances under which Oni stole, or the circumstances under which he was caught, but in a video watched by this medium, he was still seated at the Depature Longue with other passengers.
It was there that he was interrogated by, apparently, an Airport Security officer or an Air Peace staff. The faces of the interrogator and others with him did not show.
Asked where he kept the stolen monies, he calmly unzipped his luggage, and brought them out in bundles, one in an A4 brown envelope, and the others just tied together in bundles.
Asked for his Boarding Pass, he brought it out from his shirt pocket. And when asked of his ID card, he brought out an obviously fake HB Identity Card which identified him as a “Staff.”
When asked how many times he had stolen on board Aircraft since 2023, his answer was not audible.
The interrogator appealed to passengers to help them with the prosecution of such miscreants. He identified the problem as the indifference attitude of victims when thieves on board are arrested. He said when taken to a Police station, the victims are reluctant to follow up. They simply walk away once they are given their money and other stolen items back.
Not a few people are shocked that even aboard Aircraft, their money and other valuables are not safe.
