#Moodyshegsblog update: Stowaway: FAAN tightens security at nation’s airports

Ikeja – My Yakubu Dati, General Manager,
Corporate Communications, Federal
Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), said
that additional security measures would
be put in place to prevent a reoccurrence
of a stowaway from the runways of the
nation’s airports.
Dati said this on Thursday while
addressing aviation correspondents at the
Murtala Mohammed International Airport,
Ikeja.
He stressed that the additional security
measures would specifically be placed on
airports without perimeter fencing.
He said that the decision was inline with
the recent stowaway incident which
occurred at the Benin Airport on Aug. 24.
The apprehended teenager who stowed
from Benin.
“First, at every airport without fully
functional perimeter fence, a FAAN
security vehicle will be deployed to a point
within full view of the aircraft as it taxies
out to take off.
“And the FAAN security will maintain
visual scrutiny and, if necessary, respond
to any situation, until every departing
aircraft is safely airborne.
“Secondly, bushes at all airports are to be
cleared to ensure full view of the
perimeter, the control tower, FAAN Fire
and Rescue observation posts.
“And also to allow aviation security patrol
teams have a sweeping view of the entire
perimeter of an airport from their duty
posts, “ he said.
According to him, static observation posts
would be erected at strategic locations
within the perimeter fence of all airports
to forestall premeditated and inadvertent
unauthorised access to the airside.
He said that the measure would be
complemented by motorised and foot
patrols.
Dati noted that the absence of perimeter
fences at most of the airports had always
posed a challenge to FAAN because of the
huge capital outlay required in
constructing the fences.
He said that some of the fences were as
long as 40 kilometres, across the 22
network of airports in the country.
“Most of these projects are expected to
commence in 2014, while the remaining
ones will be executed in 2015, in line with
the Transformation Agenda in the aviation
industry,“ he said.
He said that FAAN has taken the issue of
security at the country’s airports more
seriously in recent times, as shown in the
dismantling and removal of abandoned
aircraft.