Four police officers detained over $6.1m cash seizure at Lagos Airport

Four senior police officers who allegedly escorted two men caught with $6.1 million in cash at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos, have been detained.

The officers; CSP Muhammad Safiyan, ASP Desmond Abella, Inspector Suleiman Jubrin, and Inspector Ali Abubakar, were said to have accompanied Mamud Abdulras and Yahaya Nasidi, the two men intercepted with the cash.

Preliminary findings revealed that the police officers claimed they were escorting the duo as “suspects” linked to an undisclosed operation.

However, anti-graft officials have raised doubts about that explanation, questioning both the legitimacy of the escort and the source of the huge cash sum.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has detained the officers as investigations intensify to determine who authorised the escort and who owns the seized money.

A senior female police officer who reportedly received the two men upon their arrival via an Ethiopian Airlines flight is also under investigation.

DAILY POST reports that the incident occurred on October 11, 2025, at the Domestic Terminal Two, DT2, of MMIA. The initial alert was filed at 7:52 a.m., moments before the suspects were scheduled to board Aero Flight N2121 to Abuja.

Security operatives discovered $6,170,000 (six million, one hundred and seventy thousand U.S. dollars) and £15,000 (fifteen thousand pounds sterling) in the possession of six male intending passengers, sparking immediate suspicions of money laundering.

The funds were swiftly confiscated as evidence, and all individuals involved were taken into custody for interrogation, while the EFCC launched a full-scale probe into the source, purpose, and destination of the money.