The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has come out to clear the air on the reported harassment of Nigeria’s immediate past First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan at the VIP lounge of the Port Harcourt International Airport.
Speaking via a statement issued on Tuesday, July 28, 2015 the Cooperate General Manager of FAAN, Yakubu Dati explained that Dame Jonathan was not stopped from accessing the VIP lounge, but her convoy was barred from the foot of the aircraft during boarding.
The statement read:
The attention of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria has been drawn to a misleading and mischievous news story in the social media, alleging that the wife of the former President, Dame Patience Jonathan was denied access to the VIP lounge at the Port Harcourt International Airport yesterday, July 27, 2015.
We wish to state that no such thing happened as Dame Jonathan, like other family members of former Presidents and other designated principal officers of Government are officially entitled to the usage of airport VIP and Protocol lounges under the management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria.
The Authority holds the former First Lady in high esteem, being the wife of our former President and therefore, could not have done anything that would suggest disrespect for her person.
The former First Lady’s convoy was only denied access to the foot of the aircraft during boarding formalities at the airport in line with international aviation best practices, strictly for safety and reasons as prescribed by ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation). Our security officials explained this fact to details of the former First Lady.
We wish to recall that former President Goodluck Jonathan GCFR in his recent trips from the same airport, has had to walk to the aircraft from the protocol lounge, in recognition of this ICAO regulation.
