The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has described a report on a passenger’s missing N78m found in an account of a top management staff’s son as the most unfortunate misrepresentation of reality.
FAAN said it was considerably irked by the reckless reportage from one news medium (names withheld) willfully providing wrong information and unprofessionally attaching it to comments to further another cause.
In a statement by Mrs Henrietta Yakubu, its General Manager, Corporate Affairs, FAAN wondered how the news medium attached a questionnaire directed at FAAN and somehow linked it to a travelling passenger in addition to the said N78million moving from the said passenger to the account of the son of top management staff of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
“The Airport Authority also wonders who the nameless passenger is and if such monies were declared at any point by the passenger or even reported to the police as it is a criminal offence.
“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,” FAAN said in the statement.
The Authority also questioned 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,” the statement further read.
FAAN said that a text message emanating from a correspondent of the news medium 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 department 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.”
But reacting to the message, FAAN said there was nothing wrong with an enquiry but providing the 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 the reporter’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 the reporter and his 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 the reporter 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,” the statement read.
