The two security guards who found and returned a bag at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos have been rewarded by their company, Halogen Security Company Limited.
Daniel Achi, who found the bag and his supervisor, Francis Emepueaku, were on Thursday given N250, 000 each and scholarships to diploma programmes in security management and plaques.
The company had on Wednesday honoured them with an early morning ceremonial parade by their colleagues.
The Group Managing Director of the company, Mr Wale Olaoye, said the guards displayed honesty and deserved to be rewarded.
Achi and Emepueaku were said to have been on duty at the new multi-level car park at the MMIA, on Saturday, August 18, when they found a bag containing a phone, large sum of money in dollar denomination as well as expensive gift items, and returned it to the owner, a lady who had just arrived Nigeria from the United States of America.
While addressing other members of staff of the company, Olaoye said the guards’ honesty had caught global attention and urged others to emulate them.
The Deputy Managing Director, Alpha Mead Facilities, managers of the car park, Mrs Wale Odufalu, said the guards deserved commendation for choosing honour over temporary wealth.
The Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Saleh Dunoma, said recent developments at airports across the country showed that Nigerians were honest people.
“Several other related cases are being reported at our airports from those who forgot money, documents and other valuables and they have been returned to the owners,” he said.
Dunoma, who was represented by the Director of Engineering Services, Mr Salisu Daura, said by the act, the guards had written their names in gold.
Lagos-based medical practitioner and family friend of the owner of the lost bag, Dr Banji Oyegbami, who posted the story on social media, stated that the country would be great again with men of integrity such as the guards in Halogen.
“I decided to give these men what is bigger than money by writing about their act, to let people know that we still have integrity in Nigeria,” he said.
According to Oyegbami, the guards’ act has gone viral and he has received several messages from within and outside the country, including a call from the Archbishop of Canterbury, United Kingdom.
Achi said he joined Halogen over a year ago and had received commendations for his honesty several times.
