Operatives of the Nigeria Police Force at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos State, have paraded five COVID-19 certificate forgery suspects.
At a press briefing on Thursday, the Police Commissioner, Airport Command, Bature Umar, said the suspects sold fake negative COVID-19 certificates to travelers within the international wing of the airport.
The suspects were identified as Moses Samuel, Achibong Idorenyin, Popoola Adewala, Abdulmalik Ibrahim and Wale Aderele.
The Commissioner said the suspects were exposed on February 19 when they defrauded a British Airways passenger, Michael Osagbogun, of N50, 000 for a COVID-19 test.
One of the suspects had taken the victim to a cyber café in Ikeja where a fake negative certificate was issued; but the passenger, who was on his way to the UK, was eventually denied boarding by the officials of the airline who spotted the fake certificate.
The passenger reported the incident and a joint team of Criminal Investigation Department and Aviation Security arrested the suspects.
Umar said, “Upon interrogation, the suspects confessed to the crime and the sum of N50, 000, which they obtained from the victim was recovered from them, while the computer used for the crime has been impounded and will be used as exhibit in the court of law.”
According to the Police, the suspects would be arraigned in court on Friday, March 5.
