After a series of criticism and video exposure, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) decided to end the evil activities of many officials working at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos and the evil acts of extorting money from passengers. This has damaged its image on a global scale.
The agency recently announced measures and regulations aimed at reducing the extortion of passengers by airport officials to a “minimum” level.
FAAN Managing Director Captain Rabiu Yadudu recently announced the news in Abuja that the new efforts will greatly help improve the safety and integrity of the country’s airports. To show the seriousness of this time, FAAN announced on Tuesday the arrest of an employee of Nigerian airline Arik Air for soliciting bribes from a passenger.
FAAN said: “After airport officials at the national airport continued to blackmail passengers at the FAAN emergency management meeting and took steps to solve the problem, an Arikairline staff member was arrested while GE Aviation demanded bribes from a traveling passenger. Terminal Building (GAT), Lagos." The agency immediately took back the duty card of the erring person and handed it over to the relevant security agency to take appropriate action to deter other bad guys in the airport.
In response, Arik Air’s management announced the suspension of the staff’s duties in a statement signed by the airline’s spokesperson Adebanji Ola, stating: “The management of Arik Air (takeover) has immediately suspended one of them from being arrested by the federal government. The Nigerian Airport Authority requested bribes from the domestic department of Murtala Mohammed International in Ikeja, Lagos, pending further investigation.
"Although the management conducted its own internal investigation, if further investigation is required, we would like to assure FAAN of our cooperation in this matter. We fully support FAAN's work to eliminate this threat of corruption at our airport." FAAN It also pointed out that “recently, passengers have complained about embarrassing online videos of extortion at national airports, so it is necessary to develop a multi-level strategy to contain this threat.”
However, today's survey results show that FAAN aims to eliminate airport corruption, especially the new decision of the national gateway MMIA is not easy. The investigation conducted by THISDAY confirmed that the principal officials conducting extortion and soliciting bribes from passengers operate in a semi-autonomous manner and therefore are not directly accountable to FAAN management.
These include Nigerian Customs, Quarantine, Nigerian Immigration Service, National Drug Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and even security personnel under FAAN Aviation Security (AVSEC). These officials always claimed that they received instructions from the headquarters and were therefore not obliged to abide by the rules of engagement instructed by FAAN management.
On September 26, 2021, THISDAY conducted an investigation into the departure activities of the International Wing of Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos and found that NDLEA officials, immigration and quarantine departments had opened up space, and they ordered passengers to come and look for their passengers. luggage.
Investigations revealed that NDLEA, Department of State (DSS), quarantine and AVSEC officials were all located in a kiosk next to the X-ray machine that inspected all passengers’ luggage at the entrance of the terminal, where they instructed each passenger to take it immediately His luggage was physically searched and it came out of the X-ray machine. This forces passengers to queue disorderly and form a crowd at the entrance of the terminal, and security personnel need time to check each baggage.
Today gathered the same old routine, forcing some passengers to pay or some of their luggage will be confiscated. It is being carried out by security guards. Obviously passengers in a hurry are paying so that they are allowed to go to the airline to handle the check-in procedures. .
But Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu, FAAN's general manager of public affairs, told today that sufficient measures have been taken to check the excessive behavior of security personnel who are not directly responsible to FAAN. She said that if there were any violations, FAAN would take back the duty card from the officer, and then he had to go to his office to explain why the card was withdrawn.
She also said that there are new regulations that every official must clearly wear his name tag on his chest so that passengers can see it, and provide passengers with a number to call or send information when an unfavorable interface appears. In addition, the cameras that exposed the active area were activated along with the signs to warn officials that the cameras had been pointed at them.
In response to this new development, Captain John Ojikutu, an aviation safety expert, CEO of Centurion Securities, and former commander of MMIA, warned: “Without the participation of the Airport Safety Committee, FAAN may be in the multilateral government. Conflicts within security agencies. Airports. The National Civil Aviation Security Committee and the Airport Security Committee should investigate the issue of airport extortion, which involves all government agencies at the airport. With the level of domestic terrorism, poverty, low-paid or low-paid employees, we should Began to worry about insider threats.
"The Airport Safety Committee includes: FAAN, customs, immigration, police, DSS, military airport commanders, AON, and representatives of foreign airlines. Although Nig CARs Part 17 (Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations, 2006, as amended) designates FAAN to be safe at airports The plan is to coordinate government security agencies, but for agencies established for airport development and management rather than security, this has always been a difficult task." He added that all government security agencies at the airport add up to FAAN security personnel. More than four times.