Airport cleaner returns bag with foreign currencies found in male toilet

Just when the inspiring story of the two honest Halogen guards is yet to fade away, another Nigerian, Mary Ishaya, a janitor with Lakewood Development Company, working at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, has displayed uncommon honesty when she returned a lost bag picked up in a male toilet at the airport.

On Tuesday, September 11, 2018, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) on its official twitter handle @FAAN_Official tweeted: “We celebrate Mary Ishai who works for Lakewood company, the cleaning contractor responsible for cleaning Abuja Airport.

“She found the following valuable items in the toilet: $2,000, $140 Canadian, eight pieces of coins, N21,850, two international passports, four ATM cards, four bus cards and baggage claim tags. The owner, an employee of Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Imade Uhunwagho, has since collected his valuables.”

The cleaning firm has in appreciation given the dutiful worker an undisclosed amount of money while also promoting her several steps from being a janitor to a supervisor. Managing Director of Lakewood, Mr. Sam Nchezor, said this is the fourth time their members of staff working in airports across the country would be returning lost goods.

Mary, the latest example of all that is good about Nigeria, in a chat with The Guardian on telephone yesterday narrated how the incident happened: “On Monday, I was working in the toilet when my colleague took excuse and said I should keep an eye on his beat. I stayed outside the male toilet when a passenger called my attention to a bag inside. I told him to help me bring it out since I am not permitted to enter a male toilet.

“He brought it out and said I should open it. I said it was not my duty to search the bag, that I will take the bag to the information desk and he just walked away. I later submitted the bag to the information desk where it was opened and a lot of foreign currencies found inside.

“The owner of the bag returned the following day, he was so happy to find his missing items intact. He asked to see who found the bag, he took my picture and contact, appreciated me and said he was still coming back to see me again.”

When asked why she wasn’t tempted to keep the bag since she wasn’t suppose to be at the men’s toilet, she said: “I didn’t take the bag because it is not mine. My duty is to clean and return any lost item. I give God the glory for the good name I have made. My advice to Nigerians is not to take anything that does not belong to them. Give it back to the owner and God will reward you in ways you can’t imagine.”