FOLLOWING the attractions Nigeria’s airport security system has been generating in the recent past with the British High Commission raising concerns about the danger posed to passengers by the heavy traffic on the Murtala Muhammed Airport road among others, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has been advised to close the road linking the Beesam axis to the airport service road.
The British High Commission in line with key players’ concern over safety of passengers and other airport users in the face of security breach had felt that the usual traffic congestion on the Lagos airport road could be a source of danger or insecurity to new comer passenger to the airport.
Besides this the commission faulted what it called the lack of shuttle buses for passengers connecting flights between the local and international terminals which the commission argued if resolved may not only solve the problem of such passengers connecting their flights timely, but also solve the challenge of having to face the traffic on the airport service road which has been turned to all comers’ road.
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Calling for the closure of the road linking Beesam to the airport road, the Managing Director of Centurion Security Service, Group Captain John Ojikutu (retired) and a one-time military commandant of the Lagos airport, said the heavy traffic on that road could be an albatross to the management of airport in the event of any serious occurrence of airport emergency incident or accident.
According to Ojikutu, “In the midst of the complicated and uncontrolled urban development, the airport could be a reservoir for the overflow of disturbances from the environment and the surrounding building that stranded the airport perimeter fence could be launching pads for any attack on the airport. The recent incursion of a Nigerien into an Azman aircraft at the airport runway holding point could be a rehearsal for such attack and a big thing waiting to happen.
“Murtala Muhammed Airport in its present state is in the midst of uncontrolled urban development and complicated road network. Without FAAN management exercising proper ownership of the Road the security of the airport infrastructure and the safety of traveling passengers cannot be sufficiently guaranteed irrespective of the number of shuttle buses that are put on the road for passenger service between the terminals between six and twelve months.”
While saying many of the properties around and outside stranded on the 23Sq km Airport perimeter fence of the airport have been encroached upon, the security expert called on FAAN and Lagos State government to work together as was done recently at Enugu airport to recover part of the land from those who have encroached into the land even as he urged FAAN to subsequently construct a road around the 23 km perimeter fence to enhance the airport security away from any launching of attack on the airport from the surrounding areas in the next 12 or 18 months.
In the interim he suggested that the internal patrol of the perimeter fence can be delegated to the Nigerian Air Force being an interested party in airport security as an operator of military aviation at a joint user airport.
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