The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said it has reinforced security at its major airports to prevent any security breach as recently alleged when reports indicated that there was theft on taxiing business jets.
The General Manager, Corporate Affairs, FAAN, Mrs. Yakubu Dati who disclosed this, said that the agency would install Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras at the strategic locations within the airside to monitor activities in order to forestall aircraft poaching and other incidences.
Profiling
According to a THISDAY report, in response to the recent unconfirmed reports of alleged pilferage of bags on taxing business jets on the runway of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos FAAN has started profiling workers who provide services at the various terminals of the major airports in the country.
The measure is aimed at forestalling security breach and incursions at the nation’s airports. The airport management also said it was determined to prevent any action that could compromise security at any of the nation’s airports, including insider threat, which investigations revealed has been responsible for the bombing of aircraft and terrorist access to some airports in different parts of the world in the last few years.
Presently, all personnel who work at all the private jet terminals, the construction workers at the airside of all the major airports in the country and all other workers who are not substantive staff of government agencies, airline and handling companies are subjected to profiling before they access the airport terminals, especially the airside of the airports.
Also, FAAN has started quarterly security screening of Aviation Security (AVSEC) personnel and has introduced a policy that no staff would serve in one post for more than three months.
“The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) set up a committee to investigate the alleged theft on the airport runway of the Lagos airport but when the committee wanted to hear from those who reported the theft none showed up. But we have taken proactive measures to fortify our airports and henceforth we must profile all the personnel who work at those private terminals.
“Although we used to do this before, so we just resumed and from the feedback, we have been getting, it is those who are against the strict security measures that we have taken that are spreading the rumours of theft on the runway. So far we have not been able to confirm any of the allegations, although investigation is still on-going,” a top official of FAAN told THISDAY.
Without comprehensive security and perimeter fencing at many of the major airports in the country, THISDAY learnt that trespassers, miscreants and bandits could gain access to many of these airports and past experience has indicated that due to porous nature of the airport fences some host communities extend their farmland to the airports and most airports have small tracks which serve as thoroughfare to the villagers who live around the airport.
A retired security operative with FAAN told THISDAY that this was overlooked in the past but at the present era of terror attacks, the agency has taken measures to prevent host communities from having access to the airport environment.
Also security expert and secretary of Aviation Round Table (ART), Group Captain John Ojikutu said that the major setback to fortifying security at the airports is the lack of security and perimeter fencing, the regular training and retraining of aviation security personnel and recruitment of an adequate number of security personnel to man the airports.
Abandoned Aircraft
Mrs. Yakubu Dati also disclosed that FAAN has commenced evacuation of abandoned aircraft at the airside of the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos.
“At least, 13 aircraft belonging to different airlines have been abandoned at the airside of the airport for several years with their owners reluctant to relocate them despite several warnings issued by the agency in the past,” Yakubu said.
She disclosed that FAAN had severally told the owners of these aircraft to relocate them away from where they are presently abandoned without any fruitful response from them, stressing that where they are presently abandoned constitute danger to the safety and smooth ground movements of airplanes.
So far, she said four of the abandoned aircraft were relocated last week while additional four were moved on Monday.
She gave the names of the aircraft relocated last Friday by the agency as Associated Air, IRS, Dana Air and Hak Air. Others that were moved Monday were aircraft belonging to the liquidated carrier, Air Nigeria, Associated Cargo, Bellview, JedAir, Precision Aviation Handling Company and PAC, TopBrass and others.
She said the relocation became necessary in order to give more space for airworthy aircraft to land, take off and manoeuvre as expected during ground movements at the airside, insisting that FAAN would continue to take safety and comfort of airport users as a top priority.
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She said: “The airports belong to FAAN, which means that it is the property of the Federal Government and there is no airline that is bigger than Nigeria. Nigeria has given them a long time to be able to move their aircraft and they have refused to do this. FAAN is not taking possession of their aircraft, but we are moving them away from where they are to another place within the airport where they will not serve as eyesore and where they will not constitute nuisance to activities on our airside,” Mrs. Yakubu said.
