There was momentary apprehension at Akure airport in Ondo State on Friday after hoodlums suspected to be internet fraudsters, also known as Yahoo boys and some thugs invaded the airport in what appeared like a reprisal attack on the aviation security operatives at the airport.
It was gathered from online sources that the hoodlums who stormed the airport with about 15 vehicles, were heavily armed.
Upon arriving in the airport in convoy, they attacked a security operative on duty, inflicting various degrees of injuries on him and other staff of AVESEC.
In a video making the rounds on the Internet, officers of AVESEC made frantic efforts to rescue their colleagues from the stronghold of the suspected thugs to an avail.
In what had a semblance of terrorist attack, the Yahoo boys stopped all official and commercial activities at the airport for several hours.
The police officers, who were supposed to support the aviation security, helplessly looked on as there was no reasonable intervention from them.
It, however, took the intervention of the Department of State Security, DSS, who were mobilized to the scene before calm returned to the airport.
A security operative who spoke with journalists, on condition of anonymity, said it was a terrorist attack and not just a reprisal attack.
“What happened yesterday here was not just an ordinary attack. We were attacked by some terrorists,” Daily Post quoted the operative as saying.
“The whole issue started a few days ago when the main suspect, and some of his friends, tried to block the emergency exit of the airport. Having sensed their intention, we told them to leave but insisted.
“When my colleague tried to clamp his vehicle, he collected the clamp chain from him and injured him badly. This led to a serious struggle between our man and their man.
“But we thought it was all over, only to be attacked by the same man and his gang. The entire airport was shut down for hours, posing a serious security threat”.
By Sunny Green
