FAAN is on course in fight for crime free airports

For many years, the image of the country through the criminal activities of saboteurs across the airports particularly the international airports have for long been battered.

The shenanigan activities of the different groups responsible for the illegalities who operate in a network included: touting, extortion, begging, duping of innocent passengers, among other crimes.

The disgraceful attitude of the undesirable elements has rubbed off on the integrity of the country as even foreign visitors into the country have not been left out of the  antics of the notorious groups.

Among the strategies they employ in swindling their victims include: coercion, blackmail, psychological torture, threats and persuasion. Those who often fall for their antics in most cases are the first time travellers.

The irony of the sad situation is that all these evils have been traced to the different shades of uniform personnel posted to the airports to enforce safety and security but have been found culpable in the activities unchallenged until recently.

The previous governments failed to show concerns about the gravity of the negative implications of such illegalities on the general image of the country before the outside world.

However, from day one,  the present government through the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo, and the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mrs Olubunmi Kuku, have expressed their total disgust about such actions capable of making the ease of doing business at the airports difficult.

Little wonder why at every available opportunity both the minister and the FAAN MD have continued to announce their intentions to sanitize the airports environments for the purpose of making air transport and other business activities seamless.

Only recently, the minister who expressed deep worries about the business of crimes at the airports revealed the efforts of government at tackling the menace headlong remarked: “We are all working under the coordination of the National Security Adviser who called a meeting a few days ago on this issue and we shall soon unveil practical steps being taken to stem this ugly tide.”

FAAN, the agency of government directly saddled with the responsibility of making the airports environment crime free wasted no time as it sprang into action with the establishment of a task force team to go after the culprits for their subsequent prosecutions on one hand, and the unveiling of 120 armed aviation security response squad.

Kuku attributed reasons for unveiling the AVSEC armed squad  and the launching of an extensive campaign to crack down on these illegal activities to her commitment to creating a seamless and pleasant experience for travellers.

Surprisingly, since the resolve of government to arm some of its officials, hell has been let loose with the different interest groups arguing for and against the decision taken by government.

While some are of the opinion that the establishment of a response squad by FAAN may create conflict between it and the multiple law enforcement agencies already in existence at the airports, others have justified the essence of the squad since they are all agencies of government working in the interest of the country.

Defending the setting up of the  armed squad, the director of Aviation Security Services at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), retired assistant commissioner of police, Igbafe Albert Afegbai, said: “I don’t think there will be any clash because everyone has their duties, custom has its duties to check for unauthorised duty-bound items. The Police we have here are of the bomb unit, we have the NCDC, Civil Defence, the Air Force. The Air Force has a joint patrol with the aviation security, so I don’t think there will be any clash just like the Civil Defence was created many years ago and they have not had any clash with the police.”

While everyone has the right to his/her opinion, what is critical here is the obvious fact that the airports environments have been bastardised for long and there is no government that is worth its salt that will continue to fold its hands and allow some unscrupulous elements to turn it upside down for corrupt tendencies.

Therefore, the argument that there is no need for the creation of another armed squad since there exists multiple security agencies does not hold water for obvious reasons.

However, some critics have argued that before the establishment of the AVSEC response squad, the presence of the law enforcement agencies including the police, Air Force, Customs, Immigration, NDLEA, among others rather than reduce or wipe out criminal activities at the airports, might have aggravated the crisis because of their alleged direct involvement in the untoward activities.

Without doubt, the presence of the uniform personnel have yielded no good story and because the government particularly cannot fold its hands and allow the status quo to continue, the responsibility of ridding the airports of such criminal activities falls on FAAN.

Obviously, if the situation is allowed to continue unchecked, some of those accusing FAAN of establishing the armed squad will rush to still blame it for not been proactive.

Since the bulk of the job of keeping the the airports free of crimes is on FAAN, it should therefore be allowed to explore all legitimate avenues like the creation of the response squad to achieve this dream which if achieved will go a long way in making the airports environmentally friendly for air transport.

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