We Never Denied Patience Jonathan Access To Vip’s Lounge At Airport – FAAN

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN)
on Tuesday said that it never denied Dame
Patience Jonathan, the wife of former President
Goodluck Jonathan, access to the VIP’s lounge at
the Port Harcourt International Airport.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that
FAAN’s denial is contained in a statement issued
by Mr Yakubu Dati, its General Manager,
Corporate Affairs.

The statement said the news report of the
incident which allegedly occurred on July 27 in the
social media was misleading and mischievous.
“We wish to state that no such thing happened as
Dame Patience Jonathan, like other family
members of former Presidents and other
designated principal officers of Government, are
officially entitled to the use of airports’ VIP and
protocol lounges under the management of FAAN.

“The Authority holds the former First Lady in high
esteem, being the wife of our former President
and, therefore, could not have done anything that
would suggest disrespect for her person,” it said.
According to the statement, the former first
lady’s convoy was only denied access to the foot
of the aircraft during boarding formalities at the
airport in line with international aviation best
practices.

It said this was strictly for safety reasons as
prescribed by the International Civil Aviation
Organisation (ICAO).

The statement said: “Our security officials
explained this fact in detail to the former first
lady.

“We wish to recall that former President Goodluck
Jonathan in his recent trips from the same
airport, had to walk to the aircraft from the
protocol lounge, in recognition of this ICAO
regulation.”