By Kamsi Anayo
The Anambra State Police Command has assured that the Anambra International Cargo and Passenger Airport, Umueri, Anambra-East Local Government is well secured by the police and other security agencies.
The Command Spokesman, DSP Ikenga Tochukwu, was reacting to the alleged threat notice sent to the airport authority by hoodlums.
According to him, the Command has not received reports of any threat of attack on the airport, but assured the citizenry of watertight security at the facility.
He said, “The police is there. Civil Defence is there and other security agencies are there too.
“We have not received any report of threat notice on the facility. There is security at the airport and people fly in and out of the state. There is no security threat in the airport whatsoever.”
There were speculations that hoodlums were snatching phones, bags and others items from staff along Airport Road at nights.
A victim on condition of anonymity, however, urged the need to intensify security at the airport to restore the confidence of passengers and other users.
He said the rumoured hoodlums threat notice has halted flight operations and other activities at the airport on Mondays.
“They threatened to pull down the entire airport, if the order on no work at the airport on Mondays was disobeyed,” the source said.
Following the alleged threat notice, he said, the airport management has instructed workers not to come to work on Mondays in the interim.
It also recalled that sometime in August this year, a female passenger was attacked by hoodlums around the airport, but survived.
He equally recalled that a man was killed in cold blood by hoodlums along the airport road this year, adding that there was an urgent need to tighten security at the airport especially at night.
He narrated how hoodlums waylaid staff of the airport along the road and snatched their phones and their bags from them.
He said the reason for the incessant attacks unleashed on workers after work was that flight operations ended at 7pm everyday and as at that time getting taxi to take them to where they would safely get vehicles to their respective homes become difficult, hence they become open to attacks by hoodlums.
The source added that there are no temporary accommodation for workers yet at the airport even as they closed late at night which makes them to find their way home at night, irrespective of the porous nature of security along the airport road.
He added that there was need for the airport management to provide vehicles to convey workers home after close of work at nights.