Nigerian airports exposed to terrorist attacks –Experts

Oyetunji Abioye and Simon Ejembi
Experts in the Nigerian aviation industry have warned that security must be improved at the country’s airports to forestall terrorist attacks and security breaches.
One of the experts, a former Assistant Secretary General of the Airline Operators of Nigeria, Alhaji Muhammed Tukur, said there are obvious vulnerabilities in the nation’s aviation industry.
Tukur, who noted that the United Nation had described Boko Haram as one of the deadliest terror groups in the world, said the lapses in the aviation security system must be fixed immediately.
He said, “We have requirements by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the United Nations agency that regulates the global aviation industry, which Nigeria must meet.
The current state of the nation’s airport calls for concern. It is beyond what most people are thinking; Nigeria is a major country in the world and it is time for us to take our airport security very serious. We have seen what happened to AirFrance crew and the Russian plane in Egypt.”
An aviation security expert and Chief Executive Officer, Selective Security Limited, Mr. Ayo Obilana, agreed that there were security lapses at the airports.
He said the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria lacked critical airport security equipment including 3D body scanners, adequate CCTV cameras, explosive detectors and modern X-Ray machines, among others.
“FAAN needs Federal Government’s help to buy these equipment; the agency does not have the money to do so,” he said.
Another security flaw, according to him, is a lack of coordination among the various security agencies providing security at the nation’s airports with the agencies working at cross purposes.
He said, “We are caught in the era of global insurgency and Boko Haram in Nigeria. We need to improve on intelligence gather and seek to control arms importation into the country.”
The Chief Executive Officer, Centurion Aviation Security Consult, Capt. John Ojikutu (retd), highlighted the danger of inadequate manpower.
He explained that it was possible for passengers to take very dangerous goods and weapons onboard an aircraft when overworked aviation security officials become too tired to properly examine hand luggage and effectively profile the passengers through the X-Ray machines.
Apart from the inadequate training and obsolete equipment, which weakened security at the nation’s airports, there is the threat posed by insiders.
Ojikutu, who is also the Secretary General of industry pressure group, Aviation Roundtable, said, “We need to look at insiders’ threat. Do we do a background check on the airport staff, who are paid peanuts?
“I’m talking of those who clean the aircraft, its toilets, baggage loaders, etc. They could be given peanut to compromise the safety of passengers. Insider threat is rising and Nigeria must do something about it urgently.”
FAAN’s security officials, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said there are only four 3D body scanners at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos out of which only two are serviceable. They added that they are about 12 units of baggage X-Ray machines at the airport, but only few of them are put to use because they aren’t enough aviation security officials to man them.
There have been several security breaches at the airport in recent years, from stowaways to airport staff conspiring with drug traffickers.
Despite reported efforts by authorities over the years to check these breaches, they have continued. In August this year, two employees of Arik Air were arrested for smuggling drugs aboard aircrafts.
Oliver Chibuzor was arrested by officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency for concealing cocaine in catering supplies.
His arrest followed that of a senior member of the airlines’ cabin crew, Chika Udensi, by UK Border Force officials with 20 kilogrammes of cocaine at Heathrow Airport, London.
Experts said the two might have smuggled explosive devices onto flights if they had so wished.
The Federal Government had on Sunday suspended the Head of Security, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja and the airport’s Termal Manager following a security breach at the airport.
Angry passengers of a Turkish Airline flight had invaded the airport tarmac and stopped the airline’s aircraft from taking off.
The Minister of State for Aviation, Capt. Hadi Sirika, said the security breach by the passengers, which occurred from 11pm on December 24 till around 2am on December 25, 2015, was dangerous, considering the level of global terrorism.