9 November 2009
Anthony Omoh — The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Embassy of France in Abuja have arrested four suspects over alleged visa scam at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The suspects have been handed over to the police for further investigations.
Three of the suspects were arrested last Wednesday at the Embassy of France at Maitama District, Abuja in their attempt to obtain visas under the pretext that they were meteorologists working with FAAN.
They had gone to the embassy with fake FAAN letterheads, signed by one of their accomplices, who claimed to be the Director of Training of FAAN.
One other suspect was arrested last Thursday in Kubwa area of Abuja during police investigation with the assistance of the officers of FAAN Aviation Security.
Managing Director of FAAN, Mr. Richard Aisuebeogun, yesterday in Lagos disassociated the Authority from any visa scam and refuted the claim of the suspects that they were employees of the Authority.
He said that FAAN has no meteorologists in its service and he did not give any letter of authority to any of its staff to proceed on a meteorology course abroad contrary to the claim of the suspects.
"The suspects are not in any way staff of FAAN. One of them claimed to be the Director of Training of the Authority. That is a post that is not in existence in FAAN. They also wrote a fake website address of FAAN in their letter to the embassy. That is not in any way the same as our website address. We would not relent in exposing such individuals who are out to rubbish our corporate image," he said.
Mr. Aisuebogun assured that his management would assist security operatives, the French embassy and others in fighting the menace of visa scam and other related crime in all the nation's airports.
He warned members of the public to be wary and report to the Authority and the police unscrupulous individuals, who have consistently been impersonating the Authority's officials on the internet with contract scam.
He said the Authority had put all necessary measures in place to check the activities of criminals across the nation's airports and among the airports' stakeholders.
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