The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria has said it has concluded plans with the Office of the National Security Adviser to reduce the number of security checkpoints at the country’s airports.
This follows complaints by travellers who have bemoaned the delays caused by multiple physical security checks.
Speaking with newsmen over the weekend, the Managing Director of FAAN, Olubunmi Kuku said the agency and the office of the NSA have agreed to carry out short and long-term measures to address the issue.
Part of the measures will include the creation of a joint coordination room where all the agencies can perform the necessary checks by monitoring CCTV cameras.
Kuku noted that the issue of multiple security checkpoints was the first challenge she took up upon the assumption of office.
The FAAN MD added that she has had productive conversations with the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu to craft viable solutions to the issue.
She said, “On the issues of the checking of baggage, it borders me so much and that was the first inquiry that I made when I assumed office. As far back as 2011 and 2012 when I was in the industry, I have worked on this with the former Minister.
“It goes beyond FAAN, a lot of those agencies, Customs, NDLEA, Quarantine, Agriculture, we now have EFCC, we have almost everybody at the airports, we had Executive order 001 during the Buhari administration to move them out under the then Vice President office, now we have the National Single Window, 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 which came out of 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.”