The airport worker caught while trying to use an innocent passenger to traffic illicit drug has been arrested.
The video of the man, an official of Partfinder International Limited, an aviation security company, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, receiving slaps from the angry passenger went viral earlier in the week.
The official’s approach of the passenger seeking him to help dispatch suspected illicit drug through a departing Ibom Air flight to Accra, Ghana irked the traveller.
According to the Director Public Affairs & Consumer Protection of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Obiageli Orah, the official has been apprehended.
Orah stated this in a statement she released where she threw light on the incident.
It reads in part, “The attention of the management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), has been drawn to a video circulating on social media where a supposed staff of the Authority was knelt down and was being slapped by a passenger for trying to use him to traffic drug.
“It has been identified that the incident took place at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport on Tuesday, January 16, 2024, at about 1430 hours at gate 2 boarding gate at ITZ2.
“The Authority wishes to set the records straight by stating that the officer being manhandled in the video is not a staff of FAAN. He has been identified as a member of the staff of Pathfinder company.
“The employee was said to have approached a passenger to help him convey a parcel through the flight. When the passenger became sceptical ,he raised an alarm, alleging that he was being set up for drug trafficking.”
FAAN spokesperson, however, disclosed that the passenger involved was arrested for further questioning while the passenger involved boarded his flight to Ghana.
“The employee was immediately arrested for questioning by the Crime Investigation and Intelligence Unit of the Aviation Security Services. The passenger involved has since departed on Ibom Air to Accra while the medication with the name ‘NEW AGE GLUCOSAMINE CHONDROITIN SULFATE COMPLEX’ has been taken to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency ( NDLEA) for further investigation.
“FAAN is dedicated to a drug-free society and has zero tolerance to drug peddling through her airports.”
