The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has partnered with the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) to reduce physical security checks at the nation’s airports.
This is to address the complaints from travellers about delays caused by excess security checkpoints.
Speaking with newsmen over the weekend, the Managing Director of FAAN, Olubunmi Kuku, said the agency and the office of the NSA are working together to implement short- and long-term measures to address the issues. Among these measures will be the creation of a joint coordination room where all the agencies can perform the necessary checks by monitoring CCTV cameras.
Olubunmi stated that the issue of multiple checkpoints was the first challenge she took up upon the assumption of office.
The FAAN MD also added that she has had productive conversations with the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, to map out solutions to the issue.
“On the issues of the checking of baggage, it bothers me so much, and that was the first inquiry I made when I assumed office. As far back as 2011 and 2012, when I was in the industry, I worked on this with the former minister.
“It goes beyond FAAN. A lot of those agencies—Customs, NDLEA, Quarantine, Agriculture, and EFCC—are at the airports. We had Executive Order 001 during the Buhari administration to move them out under the then Vice President’s office. Now we have the National Single Window, and I have personally sat with the NSA over the last five weeks to have conversations with him as to how we will streamline the facilitation.”
Hinting at resolutions from her meeting with the security agencies, Kuku said, “We have agreed on a few things. The first one is a short-term intervention where we reduce the number of agencies at the airports.
“The second is the longer term—a joint coordination room. We do have cameras, so we are asking all of those agencies, depending on what it is they are looking for, to move to the joint coordination room to look at the cameras and observe, and for those that are more concerned with the baggage, they can move down to where we load the bags,” she stated.
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