NIGERIAN ARRESTED WITH 1BILLON IN NIGER.

Portraying the country black is what most Nigerians are good at.
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.
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.
The spokesman for the Nigerian Customs Service, Mr Wale Adeniyi
could not be reached for comments.
But a senior official of the Service in confidence said 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.”