Posted by Sade Williams
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), has described as ‘most unfortunate and unprofessional’, the report of a passenger’s missing N78m allegedly found in an account of a top management staff’s son.
A statement signed by Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu, FAAN’s spokesperson, said: ‘The report is a misrepresentation of reality and FAAN is considerably irked by the reckless reportage from one Sunday Okim of the NewsExpress medium willfully providing wrong information and unprofessionally attaching it to comments to further another cause.
“FAAN wonders how Mr. Okim attached a questionnaire directed at FAAN and somehow linked it to a travelling passenger and wonders how N78million moved from said passenger to the account of the son of a top management staff of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN)’, she said.
The Airport Authority also said the report failed to give the passenger’s name, adding that it also failed to explain if such monies were declared at any point by the passenger or even reported to the police as it is a criminal offense.
“How did the said passenger transport such a huge sum of money to the airport? And he/she refused to report the missing money to any security agency? All these, questions the veracity of this story to a right thinking mind.
“The Authority also questions the rationale behind a story that has no depth, doesn’t tell anyone where the passenger was coming from or going or how the money left the passenger whether stolen or transferred.
” The Authority is also surprised that the story does not carry the airline that the passenger travelled with or what day or month this incident happened as this is akin to very bad journalism and the writers of such depthless misrepresentation should not parade themselves as members of the fourth estate”, Yakubu said.
She revealled a text message which emanated from Mr Okim which had read: I’d like you to react to information. We are told one of your security men, a son of one of your top management staff, M.D Musa, G.M Admin, under your H.R dept was caught with multi-million naira discovered in his personal bank account. Has the matter been reported to the relevant security agency? Thank you for your prompt response.
Accordibg to her, ‘there is nothing wrong with an enquiry but providing wrong context to sensationalize serious matters and bring organizations to disrepute is unprofessional and shows the shallow depth of the writer to gain followership on his social media handles.
“At no point did this individual talk about any passenger losing N78 million neither was there any passenger that reported N78 million to Aviation security staff at any of the nation’s airports and neither have we been asked by the Nigeria Police in any state to explain a N78 million theft at any of our airports.
“We view Mr. Okim’s story as intentionally orchestrated to make the authority look bad and frown on such an act. We have asked our legal department to contact, New Express and its Editor to explain legally how the inquiry made translates to the mischievous story that has been trending on social media.
” In the meantime, FAAN is asking Mr, Okim to provide evidence of his story or retract as soon as possible, the choice is his and so is the lawful consequence of his action”, she added.
