Is Lagos, Nigeria, a safe place to check luggage onto a flight?

As one whose checked baggage never made it from the Air France check-in to AF855 from Lagos, Nigeria, to CDG, and onward to ATL, I now am hearing rumours that checked baggage theft is a cottage industry at LOS, as well as advice that non-Africans should never ever check luggage when leaving Lagos.

Has anyone else had similar experiences in Lagos?

I want to be quick to point out that this is the first and only negative experience that I have ever had in Nigeria. My previous travel was in and out of Abuja, with no problems at all.

I wish I could say the same for Delta Airlines. The LOS-CDG and CDG-ATL legs were Delta code-shares operated by Air France. The final leg from ATL to home was on Delta, so Delta is responsible for tracing. Delta has proven utterly non-responsive in tracing the bag during the five days since I checked it in Lagos. They have failed to respond to or acknowledge my emails (not to their advertised email address ( [email protected] ) for updated information the boilerplate "We are still looking for it" on their web site.
If this is how a Delta Platinum Medallion member with 100000+ miles per year is treated, I would hate to be an "ordinary" customer.