Calm has returned to the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) hours after angry aviation security personnel brought operations at the Domestic Flight Terminal to a temporary halt in a sit down strike.
Their action affected domestic flights and left some passengers stranded as they locked up the entrance of the terminal from the tarmac.
The action was in solidarity with the Commander of the Aviation Security, Ben Henaku, who is in the grips of the National Security for allegedly breaching security procedure during the arrival of President Mills at the ariport from a USA trip Tuesday night.
To protest the alleged violence visited on their boss, the security personnel locked up part of the domestic terminal.
Subsequently passengers of a Starbow flight which arrived from Sunyani were forced to confront the security personnel to get the gates opened.
An eyewitness told Graphic that in the ensuing melee, a glass door was shattered by the stranded passengers.
The source said the situation calmed down when some senior officials of the Ghana Airport Company Limited came to talk to the workers.
A source who spoke to the Graphic on condition of anonymity said the turf battle between operatives of the National Security and the airport security began when National Security operatives confronted Mr Henaku who was found loitering around the precincts of the tarmac when the President arrived.
The source said Mr Henaku was confronted and it resulted in a scuffle which led him (Henaku) being allegedly manhandled.
When the Graphic got to the Airport Wednesday morning, the situation had returned to normal as passengers and workers of the terminal were busy going about their duties.
Security personnel declined to comment on the matter.
Some minutes later, the Board Chairman of the Ghana Airport Company Limited, Mr George Kuntu Blankson, walked into the terminal with the Managing Director of the company, Mrs Doreen Owusu-Fianko.
Not too long afterwards, Nii Laryea Affotey Agbo, a Minister of State at the Presidency and in-coming Greater Accra Regional Minister arrived at the scene and gave the assurance that the matter would be resolved.
He, however, expressed regret that the workers took that action which had the tendency to affect the image of the country.
A not-too-happy Mr Blankson told the media that �there wasn�t strike action here as you can see, everybody is doing his or her work,� in an apparent reaction to media reports that the entire airport security personnel were on strike.
He said the way forward was for management of the airport to team up with National Security to define security parameters to ensure a peaceful coexistence between them.
Mrs Owusu-Fianko, for her part, said the Ghana Airport Company Limited would conduct a full scale investigation into the circumstances that led to the temporary closure of the Domestic Flight Terminal of the Kotoka International Airport.
�We do not take issues concerning the security of the airport and our passengers lightly,� Mrs Owusu-Fianko said.
�Everything is back to normal but we have to take the necessary steps to ensure that this does not happen again.�
She said as an immediate measure, the company would engage its employees and the security agencies to reduce tension.
Source: Graphic.com.gh
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