Louis Ibah

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) says it has commenced an audit of the safety and security infrastructure and processes at the Port Harcourt Airport, Enugu and Kano Airports.

FAAN also says work on the installation of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras at the airsides of Lagos and Abuja international airports have reached advanced stages and that very soon both airports would come under 24 hours camera surveillance that guarantees the safety and security of airport workers, airlines, passengers, and visitors.

In recent years, Nigeria’s two busiest airports – the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos, and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA) – have been targets of organised crime and terrorist attacks respectively. And industry experts have linked the foiled terrorist attack on the Abuja airport and the repeated stowaway and burglary of moving airplanes on the runway to the porous security infrastructure at the two airports, especially the absence of CCTV cameras that capture all movements into sensitive parts of the airports.

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Spokeswoman for FAAN, Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu, who disclosed this to aviation reporters yesterday said the agency had commenced the project to get the major international airports in the country – Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Enugu, and Port Harcourt – covered by CCTV.

“At the moment, we have reached about 85 to 90 per cent completion stage (CCTV project) for the Abuja and Lagos airports,” Yakubu said.

“We are doing it in phases. We have improved illumination around the airsides (where aircraft are parked to load and disembark passengers) of the Abuja and Lagos airports. The project has been on for a long time even before the issue of alleged incursions into the airports and our security staff have been trained on how to utilise the equipment,” Yakubu added.

An accident involving a Dana Air aircraft, which skidded off the runway of the Port Harcourt Airport recently had raised questions on the quality of the runway to permit the landing of aircraft during rainfalls. Similarly, airline operators have raised safety concerns on the Enugu airport runway and the Kano airport.