Aviation Stakeholders Laud Efforts To Improve Security At Airports

Sequel to the stowaway incident at Benin
airport penultimate Saturday, aviation security
experts have commended the Federal Airport
Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, for taking
additional security measures to forestall
runway incursions at airports in the country. The Chairman of Aviation stakeholders
Squaretable, Capt. Balarabe Usman, told
newsmen that the aviation industry had
suffered many years of neglect which was
inherited by the present administration. Usman noted that security equipment and
facilities were allowed to decay, even as some
were abandoned, adding that there were
several efforts to build perimeter fencing at
the various airports in the country, especially
the major airports, but were abandoned halfway. Usman, who was the former Chief Security
Officer of FAAN and an aviation security
consultant, said if the agency had completed
the initial projects on perimeter fencing, the
situation would not have degenerated to the
level where there was no perimeter fencing at some airports. He said: “While we condemn the failure of
FAAN to provide adequate security at the
airside of some of these airports, we have to
also commend the efforts being made by the
Ministry of Aviation to reinforce security to
forestall such incident happening in future. “I know that what this government inherited
were decayed terminals, security equipment
and non-existence facilities but since it started
the remodelling programme, we have
witnessed what have been achieved and we
know that most airports in the country will have perimeter fencing and operational
vehicles. “The Federal Government has started
deployment of sophisticated screening
equipment in various airports and
simultaneously kicked off training of
personnel to man this equipment.” A security expert and the CEO of Centurion
Securities Limited, Group Captain John Ojikutu
(rtd), said during the auditing of airport
security by the International Civil Aviation
Organisation, ICAO, that FAAN had failed to
provide perimeter fencing and security fencing of airports in 2004, 2006 and 2008. He said the Category 1 safety status Nigeria
obtained from the US Federal Aviation
Administration was in the hope that the
country would improve its security systems at
the airports. FAAN said recently that bushes at airports
would be cleared to ensure full view of the
perimeter, allow both the control tower, FAAN
fire and rescue observation posts and aviation
security patrol teams have a sweeping view of
the perimeter of an airport from their duty posts. It also declared that at every airport without
fully functional perimeter fence, a security
vehicle would be deployed to a point within
full view of aircraft as it taxies out to take off
and maintain visual scrutiny and, if necessary,
respond to any situation until every departing aircraft is safely airborne. [Vanguard]