The Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN,  said yesterday that 216 persons were arrested by the Joint Airport Security in Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, NAIA, Abuja, between January and April this year.

Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu, Deputy General Manager, Public Affairs, FAAN, Abuja, who made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)  said the offenders were arrested over security breach.

She said the development was part of measures by FAAN to intensify security at the airport along with making sure that it achieved zero tolerance on crime.

Yakubu assured the passengers and other airport users that the airport was safe and secure, adding that all efforts were in place to make sure that no tout would be found at the airport.

“Human and aircraft traffic has increased in this airport, the volume of passengers and flights with the commercial activities is also increasing everyday but our security men had not failed in discharging their duties properly.

“With our manpower, we were able to arrest 216 suspects between January and April this year, many of the suspects have been charged to court and convicted while some are still been prosecuted.

“The suspects were arrested for committing different offences ranging from touting, hawking, loitering and theft but we transferred them to the right authorities who later charged them to court,” Yakubu said.

She told NAN that other security measures would be applied to monitor the activities of the touts and other criminals at the airports in order to put a final stop to such activities at the airport.

Yakubu, however, advised airport users to be careful and stop dealing with unknown people, especially the airport staff who were not in uniform with identity cards.