Reactions trail clampdown on airport ‘extortionists’

Twenty-four hours after the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) caught an Arik Airline staff soliciting bribes from a passenger at the airport, the airline suspended the staff.

The airline staff was apprehended at the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) of the Murtala Muhammad Airport, Lagos on Tuesday, it was learnt.

The arrest was coming a few days after an emergency FAAN management meeting on the incessant extortion of passengers by airport officials.

The staff of Arik Air, a female, was the first victim of the new order caught yesterday and her On Duty Card has been withdrawn immediately. 

The General Manager, Corporate Communications of FAAN, Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu, who confirmed the development disclosed that the official had been handed over to the relevant security agency for appropriate action to serve as deterrent to other bad eggs in the airport. 

“FAAN and any other agency that catches any staff must be advised to follow through appropriate provisions of the law as you cannot just sack, willy-nilly, a staff without following due process,” said a former general secretary of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Olayinka Abioye.

Also, retired Group Capt. John Ojikutu, former Commandant of Murtala Muhammad Airport said, “Without involving the Airport Security Committee, FAAN may bring conflict within the multilateral government security agencies in the airports.”