Calm Returns To Kotoka Airport After BNI, Police & Airport Security Melee

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.