What started as sharp argument between car hire operators at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, and some police escorts, later degenerated to pandamonium last Thursday, making people to run helter skelter for cover against stray bullet from the police.
Problem started when some car hireoperators in their usual manner, spoke to the police escort drivers and their team in a rough manner, urging them to repark their vehicles that were blocking the car hires operations axis.
Unknown to the car hire operators the leader of the police escort team, who the police officials referred to as the commander, was right inside one of the vehicles.
The policemen took offense that the car hire men had insulted their commander, and went after the men to arrest them, particularly the one they claimed insulted them.
As the policemen brandished their assult riffles in their numbers in pursuit of the car hires men, some of them corked their riffles as they chased the unarmed men everywhere.
The situation led to pandamonium, as many unarmed airport users began to run to take cover, to avoid any accidental discharge of bullet from the police.
Reacting to the development, some airport users expressed displeasure over what played out, emphasising that the incident happened at the arrival axis of the airport.
An open threat by one of the police officers to one of the car hire operators saying “I will waste you”, came as a surprise to witnesses.
One of the airport users, Mr Lucky Nwida, who witnessed the incident warned that “what is playing out at the airport, if not properly checked, might result to fatality subsequently”.
Nwida also urged members of the car hires and car rentals at the airport to adopt a better approach with which to do their work, rather than taking laws into their hands.
Also, Mr Kingsley Otamiri, a travel agent at the airport, urged car business operators to be more civilised in their approach to other users of the airport, noting that the airport is an international environment where different people come.
According to Otamiri, the issue of clash with the car hires has become a recurring matter at the airport.
He warned that it might result to more serious cases if not properly checked, calling on the airport authority to address this matter.
Meanwhile, some car rentals on that same day vandalised the vehicle of a driver, which they suspected to be a Bolt operator.
They punctured the tyre and smashed  the side mirror of the vehicle, for failing to stop at their command.
It took the intervention of the Police Bomb Squad at the airport to intervene and settle the matter, in which both parties agreed to repair the car.

By: Corlins Walter