[2013 1st Quarter] Customs intercept over N432million in Murtala Airport

Murtala Muhammad Airport Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has intercepted $2.7m (about N432m) from five suspected money launderers while attempting to travel abroad.

The Public Relations Officer of the command, Mrs. Thelma Williams, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos that the arrests were made between January and March 2013.

She said the command also arrested 12 suspects with $13.8m (N2.2bn) from September to December 2012.

Williams said there was no law banning travellers from taking money out of the country but the money must be declared by the travellers before being taken out.
She said: “From $10,000, there must be a declaration. We have a form here on which travellers make a declaration stating the source of the money they are carrying and what that money is meant for. We’ll leave one of the forms here and send a copy to EFCC.

“They would go with a copy because there are some countries that would ask travellers to produce that.

“Sometimes we even have letters from some of these countries. They want to know if so, so person passed through our airport and if he made such a declaration so that it won’t look as if it is a fake declaration.

“You don’t pay any amount of money to declare. The money is yours; it’s just for you to declare. I have so, so amount of money with me that I am traveling out with.

“I think why they are running away from this declaration now is because government is interested. Sometimes it could be money laundering. YNaija