FAAN go tough on workers caught soliciting bribe

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), has said that it will not protect any of its staff  or airport staff if caught soliciting bribe at any airport in Nigeria.

Henrietta Yakubu, general manager, public affairs of said that the surveillance of the Authority is both at domestic and international wings of Nigeria’s airport, adding that if any government official is caught, he would be stripped of his or her On Duty Card (ODC) and eventually be removed from office.

She was speaking on the heels of questions being raised that many of the videos of passenger extortion making the rounds happened at international airports and not domestic and also, that the officials involved were government and other airport officials and not airline.

Some stakeholders expressed the belief that some government officials are known to be running brutal extortion rackets the international airports.

But Yakubu said, ‘Our surveillance is not limited the domestic wing, we are at the international airports, the managing director has said that our CCTVs must be working 24-hours, we are putting signages beside them, and we are saying that once you are caught, it is first, maiming and shaming and then removal. We will no longer condone the embarrassment.

‘’This one that happened at the General Aviation Terminal occurred just at the aftermath of our meeting on this matter, so it was embarrassing’’, she said.

FAAN had on Tuesday, apprehended a staff of Arik Air at the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) of Lagos Airport for soliciting bribe from a passenger.

The Authority in a statement said the On-Duty Card of the erring staff has been withdrawn immediately, and she has been handed over to the relevant security agency for appropriate action in order to serve as deterrent to other bad eggs in the airport.

‘’Following an emergency FAAN Management meeting  on the incessant extortion of passengers by airport officials at the nation’s airports and steps being taken to address the situation, which had in attendance the managing director of FAAN, directors of the Authority, special adviser to the president on Ease of Doing Business, Jumoke Oduwole, airport managers and airport chiefs of security, a staff of Arik airline had been apprehended while soliciting bribe from a travelling passenger at the General Aviation Terminal, Lagos.”

The management of Arik Air, in a swift reaction, said it has suspended with immediate effect, one of its  staff arrested by the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) for soliciting bribe at the domestic wing of the Murtala Mohammed International, Ikeja, Lagos, pending further investigations.

A statement released by the airline  said ‘while the management conducts its own internal investigation, we wish to reassure FAAN of our cooperation on this matter if further investigation is required. We fully support what FAAN is doing to rid our airports of this menace of corruption.’