Cleaner Who Returned N12m Receives NOA Award

The story of Josephine Agwu shows that with the existence of wise and humble Nigerians, the country will not only survive but also prosper.

Updated on March 13
Josephine Ugwu, an airport cleaner who accidentally discovered N12 million while performing her daily duties and returned the whole sum to the owner, was awarded with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) Citizens’ Responsibility Award for her act.
The Cable reports that Mike Omeri, NOA director general, made an announcement in Abuja praising Ugwu for her honesty. According to Omeri, it is the characteristic of a true Nigerian.
“She is one of the many Nigerians who, through their noble character while performing their routine duties, show their commitment to the national pledge of faithfulness, loyalty and honesty.
“She deserves to be honoured and celebrated as an icon of doing the right thing.”

Published on March 10
Miss Agwu works as a cleaner with Patovilki, a concessionaire handling the cleaning of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Vanguard starts. On her ordinary working day the woman found $28,000 and other foreign currencies totaling about N12m in one of the toilets. She never kept this money and did not even think about it, but refunded the whole sum to the owner.
Josephine confesses she has no regrets over her decision as she is sure it was the right one.
Interestingly, the woman was badly mocked in social media by some users who called her mad and silly.
The Lagos State House of Assembly, last Monday, concluded plans to invite and honour Ms Agwu. While her employer increased her salary from N7,800 to N15,000 monthly.
Speaking about the consequences of her decision, the cleaner said:
“On the part of my management, they are happy, all my supervisors. In short, they are doing good things for me. Now, they carry me like egg, even my MD.”
When the owner returned after his money, he counted and realized that the whole sum was present, he simply looked at Agwu and walked away. For the woman, it was already the third time she had returned lost bags with big money inside.

I was going to the toilet again, I saw the same bag there. Then I told the passengers sitting there that they should be mindful of the bag because once they announce the flight they may forget it. They replied that the bag did not belong to them. Three of the passengers left, so I then picked the bag and took it to the FAAN security people. At first, they put the bag on the screening machine, before they opened the bag and discovered that there were many envelops in the bag containing money in different currencies including doll