Alleged touting Airport staff: Lakewood services refutes FAAN’s claims
…As NAHCO promises collaboration for proper investigation
By Tobi Adetunji
Lakewood services, one of the companies whose staff was said to have been allegedly docked for involving in touting and illegal practices, has refuted the report of the Federal Airport Authority, revealing that its staff was neither arrested nor prosecuted by the Nigerian Police.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Nigerian NewsDirect on Thursday, the Managing Director of the company, Mr. Sam Nchezor revealed that none his staff was arrested nor prosecuted for touting, or any illegal activities.
He was of the opinion that the statement credited to FANN may have been made out of context.
In his words; “Our staff was not part of those involved in illegalities, we are not aware of the situation. If there is any staff that was arrested there should be evidence.
“I think it was a speech made out of context, we don’t have any staff that was arrested. We have a way of monitoring our staff to make sure that whatsoever they are doing does not violate the regulations of the Federal airports Authority.”
He further revealed that over time, the company has been on the good record of the Federal Airport and this has earned the company goodwill on different occasions.
Nchezor, who went down memory lane, revealed how one miss Mary Ishaya, a staff of his organization bagged an award based on professionalism, integrity and good work ethics from the wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari for returning $2000, 140 Canadian Dollars, eight pieces of coins, N21,850, two international passports, four atm cards, four bus cards and bags culminating into nothing less than $7,000.
He said, “We as a responsible entity always making sure that our workers do the right thing, and if anyone is found wanting professionally we relieve such staff of his/her duty.
“As a matter of fact the federal airport has a record to this fact that when our workers go wrong we take them out of the system because we know how sensitive the airport is, and we have a lot of references to show about that.”
In the same vein, Compliance Officer of the company, Mr. Kenneth Umukoro has expressed a shock over the report which he claims misrepresent what the company stands for.
He said, “The point is we have checked our record in Abuja and all places we are working, none of our staff was arrested or prosecuted in the last one year. So we are surprised where the source of such information was coming from.
“All our staff that we discovered ill practices from have been sacked by the company, and we go on inspection every week in which anyone found wanting is sacked immediately, and ODC (on duty card) of the sacked staffs are always returned to FAAN. Not only that, we have surveillance everywhere that if anyone is caught we send them away.
He reaffirmed that “Lakewood is not a security service company, but a cleaning service company. It’s on record that two weeks ago a staff of our company returned five iPhone promax phones to the owner. This was confirmed by the aviation security in Abuja. This is one among other exemplary services offered by our staff.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company, (NAHCO) says it is reaching out to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) on the arrest of some of its (NAHCO) staff alongside 90 others for touting at the Lagos and Abuja airports.
According to NAHCO in a statement earlier in the week, the engagement with FAAN has become necessary, to provide details of the nefarious activities of the arrested staff, so as to guide the aviation handling company in the activation of its internal disciplinary measures.
“We urge FAAN to always carry us along in this fight. The current move will in no small measure help our industry to grow as well as bring sanity to the airports,” NAHCO stated.
This was on heel of the Ninety airport staff arrested for fake COVID-19 results as well as engaging in other criminal activities.
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria had disclosed this via a statement issued on Monday, titled ‘FAAN Arrests over 90 Touts; Hands 89 over to police.’
The authority saddled with management of airports nationwide said 89 out of the 90 culprits had been handed over to the police for prosecution.
The FAAN General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Henrietta Yakubu, noted that the suspects were nabbed in both Lagos and Abuja for touting, unauthorized entry, trespass, illegal facilitation, forgery, loitering, Theft, public nuisance and arguments, amongst others.
According to her, some of those arrested are staff of Patovilki Nigeria Limited, Lakewood Services, and the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) Plc.
“Of the total arrested, 59 were handed over to the airport police command in Abuja for prosecution, while 30 were handed over to the police force in Lagos for same,” the statement read.
“FAAN will like to use this opportunity to warn those that do not have any legitimate business at the airports, as well as airport staff carrying out illegal duties to desist from such acts, as the Authority will not hesitate to arrest and hand over such individuals for prosecution.”
