NDDC MD, security aide manhandle NCAA, Arik staff over missing luggage

The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Dan Abia, and his police orderly, simply identified as Corporal California, with service number 382079, are reported to have slapped a Consumer Protection Officer of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Idris Bashir, and a staff of Arik Airlines, Joseph Nkayuk.
A statement by the Deputy General Manager (Media) of the NCAA, Sam Adurogboye, said Bashir, who is attached to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, was slapped several times by Abia while trying to explain to him the circumstances surrounding the MD’s missing luggage on an Arik Airline flight.
Before that, the police orderly had also descended on Nkayuk over the missing luggage.
Nkayuk’s offence was that upon the arrival of the Arik flight W3 258 from Port Harcourt, Rivers State in Abuja on May 26, 2014, he had the temerity to deny not only the police detail but all passengers who wanted to pick up their checked-in-bags at the tarmac, insisting that they should proceed to the arrival hall to claim their bags.
The regulatory authority said the Arik staff, who was following the Standard and Recommended Practices, eventually discovered that Abia’s bag had been erroneously reloaded onto another Arik flight by another handler.
Unfortunately, the service had departed.
Nkayuk, while trying to explain the development to Abia, was manhandled by California, who pulled out his gun and threatened to shoot him, as he rained slaps and punches on him.
Adurogboye said it was in the chaos created by Abia and his orderly that Bashir attempted to intervene to explain the situation better, promising to retrieve the bag.
He, however, also found out that the bag had been put on another flight that had departed.
Bashir, while explaining the situation to Abia, received slaps from the NDDC MD.
Adurogboye said the NCAA was studying the reports.
He said NCAA would want to reiterate that passenger belligerence and violence are certainly against aviation regulations and would attract appropriate sanctions, adding that passengers should desist from such acts.
Instead, he said if there are issues, such should be forwarded as a formal report to the Authority and such would receive prompt attention.