The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says its officer identified as L.S. Shonibare did not assault Big Brother Naija star Abiri Khloe.
The reality TV star had taken to Instagram to accuse the officer of assault at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos, saying her nails were broken in the process.
Khloe called on NDLEA to investigate the incident and called on officials to stop “harassing citizens because of their uniforms”.
However, NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi in a press statement on Sunday said the claims were false.
Mr 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 airport in the early hours of December 5.
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.”
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 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.
