Speaking with journalists at an event to reward the duo, Daniel explained that he had returned several sums of money recovered in the cause of his duty…

Louis Ibah

Mr. Achi Daniel, the junior security guard of Halogen Security Limited, who found an abandoned bag containing jewelries, US dollars and other documents at the multi-storey car building at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, and ensured it was returned to the rightful owner has said it was not his first time of returning money in foreign currencies to their rightful owners.

READ ALSO: Buhari hails 2 honest security men at Lagos airport

“It never crossed my mind to steal the money and I wouldn’t have done that because it wasn’t my first time of finding such and returning to the owners. No amount of money would make me to take what doesn’t belong to me. I believe my own time will come and at the right time,” said Daniel, who spoke at an event held to celebrate him and his colleague, Francis Emepueaku, by the management of Halogen Security Limited,  in Lagos, yesterday.

The company has rewarded the two officers with an educational scholarship to their wards valued at N500 million (N250,000 to be shared by each of them).

President Muhamadu Buhari had, on Wednesday, commended the two security guards and recommended that Nigerians emulate their virtues.

Speaking with journalists at an event organised to reward the duo, Daniel, who said he had worked at the Federal Palace Hotel, in Lagos, in the past, explained that he had returned several sums of money recovered in the cause of his duty to their owners before now.

He said:  “If the money was in multi-millions of foreign currencies, I would still have returned it. I saw the bag on a trolley and I said to myself somebody must have forgotten it there; it was not padlocked and without opening it, I went to the ground floor with the bag to meet with my supervisor. At that point, we went straight to the manager’s office, who now put a call through to somebody in Atlanta, Georgia, who happened to be the daughter of the owner of the bag.

“When they returned, they were jittery that some of the items in the bag may have vanished, but after cross checking it, she discovered that everything was intact and the family attempted to give us some amount of money as a form of appreciation, which we rejected and told them we were doing our job,” added Daniel.