The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has countered the allegation that wife of the Minister of Transportation, Mrs Judith Amaechi, supervised the physical attack and manhandling of some airport officials on May 26, 2018.

The agency, supervised by Rotimi aAmaechi, said those involved in the clash were security agents and aides but declined to give further details   

An initial report on Thursday claimed that Mrs Amaechi was at the centre of the melee on Saturday at the Port Harcourt International Airport. The incident reportedly occurred when she and her entourage arrived late for boarding an Abuja bound Air Peace Airline flight and thereafter attempted to force it from taking off without them.  

Reports said Mrs Amaechi’s entourage formed a human barricade to prevent the fully boarded aircraft from taking off while her armed security aides beat up two of the airline’s ground staff for not allowing their principal board the flight. 

The affected ground staffs were Confidence Elechi, an aviation security station Coordinator/Supervisor, and Innocent Ekot, a flight dispatcher.  

According a report by the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), two officials of its Customer Care Service/SERVICOM unit on duty, Otobo Edward, and the FAAN Marshaller, Promise Nsirim, were also assaulted by the angry aides when they tried to intervene.  

The report by the Crime Investigation/Intelligence Unit of FAAN at the Port Harcourt International Airport said Mrs Amaechi supervised the brutalisation of the officials and directed her aides to seize their staff identity cards, telephones and FAAN on-duty-cards.