Airport eviction: SSS DG snubs Oduah

Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah

The Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, has made unsuccessful attempts to hold a meeting with the Director-General of the State Security Service, Mr. Ekpenyong  Ita, in Abuja.

It was learnt on Monday that the minister went to the SSS headquarters on Friday to discuss the eviction of SSS operatives from the nation’s six international airports.

The PUNCH had exclusively reported on Monday that the minister barred SSS operatives from the nation’s international airports.

It was gathered that Ita was engaged in some critical functions and referred the minister to the officer in-charge of the Directorate of Airport Operations.

A source, who confided in one of our correspondents, said that the meeting between Oduah and the SSS leadership could not hold as the minister was said to have left the Maitama headquarters of the SSS without seeing the official.

It was gathered that Oduah had embarked on a sudden restructuring of the nation’s international airports in which she removed the desks of the SSS operatives and barred them from participating in security screenings and checks at the airports.

The source said that operatives of the SSS were shocked when they got to the airport last Wednesday to discover that the airport authorities had removed their stand.

The operatives were said to have been startled by the development, as there was no meeting between the minister and the SSS where such a restructuring exercise was discussed.

The source explained that the SSS operatives had refused to return because there was no desk for their personnel and equipment.

The source said, “The whole thing happened in the night; the SSS did not know anything about it; there was no meeting with our operatives to tell us anything.

“As we are talking now, the SSS are not at the airports because there is nowhere for them to sit to do their job.”

Investigations indicated that the minister had earlier fired her Chief Security Officer, who was an SSS personnel, for allegedly leaking information about her to the authorities.

She was said to have replaced the CSO with a policeman whom she believed could be trusted with her secrets and personal dealings.

The SSS Deputy Director, Public Relations, Marilyn Ogar, could not be reached for comments. Calls made to her mobile phone were not answered.

Efforts to get the reaction of the Special Assistant to the minister, Mr. Joe Obi, were also not successful. Obi terminated calls to his mobile telephone.

But the minister in Jos on Monday said the Federal Government had not barred security operatives from the nation’s airports.

Oduah   said the report that she had ordered security operatives to stay away from the nation’s airports was not true.

She said, “That is not true. That is absolutely untrue; there is no reason for that to happen. We need SSS to be in our terminals and they are there and they will remain there.

“I don’t know where the reports emanated from but I think it is unbelievable for anyone to think that someone should give marching orders to security men at any airport in Nigeria or any part of the world for that matter.”

PUNCH