In a bid to ensure security, the Federal
Government has introduced measures to forestall unnecessary loitering
of unauthorised persons at all the nation’s international airports.
The unauthorised persons, according to
the government, include protocol officers, aides and escorts of
dignitaries who are usually in the habit of following their principals
to restricted parts of the airports.
Also, the Federal Government has
announced steps aimed at curtailing the gridlock at the international
airports, saying the present situation has become a source of
embarrassment to the nation.
Announcing these at a press briefing on
Monday, the Special Adviser to the President on Performance, Monitoring
and Evaluation, Prof. Sylvester Monye, said President Goodluck Jonathan
had in September 2013, set up a committee to achieve this as part of his
transformation agenda.
According to him, the committee has
representatives from the Nigeria Police, Office of the National Security
Adviser, Nigerian Army, Nigerian Air Force, Nigeria Customs Service,
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Department of State Security
Services, Nigerian Immigration Service, Federal Airports Authority of
Nigeria and the Federal Road Safety Corps.
He added that the President was worried
over the poor security at the five international airports in Lagos,
Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Kano.
Monye, who is also the Chairman,
Presidential Committee on Airport Security, announced that from May 1,
2014, all visitors to Nigeria, including foreign dignitaries and
officials of multilateral institutions, would be required to submit
themselves to immigration officers for requisite scrutiny and clearance.
He said, “Over the years, it was the
practice of government’s protocol officers, aides of dignitaries,
protocol officers of private companies, unauthorised uniformed military
and security officials to move unhindered in restricted areas of our
airports. This unwholesome milling around in the immigration and customs
areas is a threat to national security.
“The idea is to stop all those who are
not supposed to be within the precincts of our airports from using such
facilities for loitering, and to stop the impunity of government
officials and military officers and personnel, who are not supposed to
be at the airports, from using their positions to operate in such
facilities.
“Henceforth, no protocol officer/aide
will be allowed into the arrival/baggage halls of our airports, and no
aide to inbound passengers, including trolley handlers, will be allowed
into the baggage halls. However, accredited Ministry of Foreign Affairs’
protocol officers may be allowed in restricted areas.”
Monye added that all security agencies
at the airports had been mobilised and duly sensitised to arrest any
violator of the new measures, which were aimed at bringing about sanity
to the process of air travel.
The special adviser said the Office of
the Secretary to the Government of the Federation had already issued
circulars to the respective stakeholders on the implementation of the
directive, even as airlines had been notified to carry passengers along
on the new measures.
He added that in the implementation of
the new security measure, there would be no sacred cows as senior public
officers, including governors, would be arrested if they violated the
rules.
According to Monye, government is
working on a single platform to facilitate the exchange of information
sharing for passenger profiling and check-in for the purpose of tracking
persons on the watch list in order to minimise the amount of checks
that passengers had to go through when travelling.
He said part of the strategies included
the re-calibration of operational equipment at the airports to
facilitate screening of passenger luggage without physical examination.
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