Nigeria’s aviation authorities yesterday said there was no
evidence for the United States claim that one of its air marshals was attacked
as he tried to board a flight in Lagos. The United States’ Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) said on Monday that the marshal, who was on duty, was
attacked with a syringue on Sunday and was undergoing treatment in Houston,
Texas. A spokesman for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Yakubu
Dati, said in a statement that officials were aware of the reports and had been
in contact with US diplomats. A security team from the US mission in Nigeria
had reviewed security camera footage from the Lagos airport of the air marshal,
he said. But he added: Preliminary observation from the CCTV (closed-circuit
television) footage did not show evidence of such (an) occurrence. AFP said a
US embassy spokesman in Lagos declined to comment when asked about the footage,
and referred to an earlier statement by US State Department deputy spokeswoman
Marie Harf. Harf told reporters in Washington on Monday: We can confirm reports
that an unknown assailant injected a substance into the arm of a US federal air
marshal at the airport in Lagos, Nigeria. US law enforcement agencies were
collaborating with their Nigerian counterparts to investigate the incident, she
added. The FBI said the marshal was not in danger. The incident raised fears
the syringe could have carried some form of the Ebola virus because Nigeria is
one of the West African countries where the deadly epidemic has spread.
Sun Newspaper
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