Last week, the Aviation Round Table (ART) held a breakfast meeting in Lagos and deliberated on the industry with the theme on airport security.
In the communiqué the think-tank body released later, it stated among other things that multi-layered security system, which does not necessarily mean physical multi-layer structure but technologically driven security coverage, should be provided for all airports in Nigeria to ensure security of airports, passenger and airports infrastructure.
ART also stated that there was an urgent need for provision of more funding for security at the nation’s airports to enable acquisition and deployment of state-of-the-art security equipment and that there was also the need to reduce the number of physical security checking points at the nation’s airports to enhance passenger facilitation and avoid discouragement of travel by air with unnecessary delays at the airports.
There have been efforts to reduce the number of physical security checkpoints at the airports.
In 2017, the Federal Government Executive Order on the Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria was launched at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos by the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, which removed manual baggage checking counters of the foreign airlines operating at the airport and replaced it with one harmonized screening machine at the airport departure hall. This eased the long queues at the check-in-counters of the airlines but with time the security operatives ganged up and arranged another physical interface with passengers besides the x-ray machine at the entrance to departures.
In June this year a passenger travelling to Doha from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos entered the terminal to check in for his trip. As he pushed his bag into the x-ray machine at the entrance, the security operative, a policeman, standing near the x-ray machine directed him to meet another man. Knowing that the policeman that gave him the directive was not monitoring the computer attached to the x-ray machine to see the content of his luggage, he asked the policeman why he should go and see the other security personnel.
The passenger bluntly told him that he was not going to see anybody that there was nothing in his bag that was prohibitive and attempted to carry his luggage to the airline’s counter. The policeman attempted to stop him and he said, “I have been travelling from this airport for several years. I know the rules and what I have in my bag are clothes and shoes that I need where I am going. I am going to attend a conference. If you stop me I will make sure you leave this airport from today.”
THISDAY
