The award of scholarship to stowaway teenager, Daniel Oikhena, by the
Governor Rauf Aregbesola Foundation, DeRaufs has been criticised by the
National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers, NAAPE, saying it
was wrong to make hero out of the boy.
The teenager had on Saturday, August 24, 2013, successfully breached
the security of the Benin Airport, operated by Federal Airports
Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, and managed to stowaway at the wheel well of
an Arik aircraft on a flight from Benin to Lagos. He was however nabbed
when he came out of the wheel well on landing in Lagos.
Soeaking on the scholarship award, Bunmi Gindeh, Public Relations
Officer, NAAPE, said the association “seriously frowns at the effort by
some people to make a hero out of the stowaway boy by publicly giving
reward to a boy that at best fell far short of acceptable behaviour.
“While NAAPE does not want to stand in the way of anyone’s fortune,
we consider that in this particular case, making such gesture public
gives an erroneous impression which makes it a dis-service.
“We fear that such public gesture, even in the name of charity, will
only encourage other kids, and even adults, to embark on similar
misadventure.”
NAAPE also said it was concerned that both FAAN and Arik had been
publicly trading blames over the incident, when the two corporate bodies
were both aware of their responsibilities to assist in the process of
identification and rectification of the problem in a civilised manner.
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