Story from yesterday.Nigerian authorities have intercepted explosives being smuggled onto a domestic flight in an unaccompanied suitcase, the aviation minister said. The five golden canisters disguised as microphones were found on Saturday, Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode told a news conference on Sunday. "FAAN (Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria) and Bellview Airlines have managed to foil an attempt to bring explosive devices on a Bellview flight," he said.
The find came during the latest shake-up of Nigeria's air industry in the wake of three plane crashes that killed 319 people in just over a year. Photographs of a man suspected of checking the suitcase onto the scheduled flight from Lagos to Abuja were distributed to the media. Fani-Kayode said the security services were holding the man for questioning.
"Whether these explosives were put there as a device to blow up the plane and kill Nigerians or whether they were there simply to be flown to Abuja for some other mysterious purpose, both courses of action are completely illegal," he said.