The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has denied the reports trending on social media that its officer named L.S. Shonibare assaulted BBNaija star, Abiri Khloe.
The Director, Media and Advocacy NDLEA, Mr Femi Babafemi made the denial in a press statement on Sunday in Abuja.
He said that the reports were untrue as the operatives of the agency did not assault Khloe at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos as speculated.
Babafemi said that the agency’s preliminary findings showed that none of its officers assaulted the Air Peace airline passenger at the departure gate of the MMIA in the early hours of Dec. 5.
The BBNaija star called out an NDLEA official named L.S. Shonibare while she shared a video of her broken finger nail, which she blamed the official for.
Khloe called on NDLEA to investigate the incident and called on officials to stop “harassing citizens because of their uniforms”.
In swift response, Babafemi said that the passenger had in a social media publication alleged that a female NDLEA officer harassed and assaulted her while on transit.
According to him, while further investigation of the allegation is ongoing, the following facts has so far been established.
He said: “at about 12:20am on Sunday Dec. 5, during an outward clearance of passengers going to South Africa by Air peace, a female passenger, Ms. Abiri Khloe was asked to submit her luggage for a search, which is a regular procedure.
“In the course of searching her luggage, which contains about 8 handbags, Khloe who obviously came late for the flight as shown on CCTV footage became agitated and hurled a number of unprintable insults at the female officer searching her luggage.
“This attitude is naturally a red flag that would raise suspicion and equally taken as an attempt to distract the officer,” he said.
Babafemi said that Khloe went further to point fingers in the face of the officer and at the same time pulled out a phone to record the officer in the course of doing her work.
“At that point, the officer seized the phone from her to stop the distraction but that didn’t stop the passenger who brought out another phone to record their encounter,” he said.
The NDLEA spokesperson said that the aggrieved passenger and the public are assured that the NDLEA as a law enforcement agency that upholds discipline among its officers and men would dig deep to get the facts of the matter.
He said that the agency would take further steps to investigate any other evidence made available in the course of the ongoing process and revert back to the public.
“We are out to serve the public and we assure the public of fair treatment to all people irrespective of their social status.