The police in neighbouring Niger Republic arrested a Nigerian carrying 4.6m Euros (N1.05bn) in cash at the Diori Hamani Airport in Niamey, the capital of Niger, on his way to Dubai. However, the Nigerien authorities have refused to send the seized funds back to Nigerian authorities.
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 has been a rise in the number of Nigerians transferring huge sums of money in cash through neighbouring countries.
The police in Niger are already working on the suspicion that the money traffickers have accomplices within the country.
Interestingly the authorities in Nigeria 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.
Source: LIB