Key players blame Lagos airport theft incident on insiders’ threats

AS controversy continues to trail the recent theft of nearly all the airfield lighting cabled at the Runway 18Right at the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed airport, the issue of insider threats has again become topical amongst stakeholders within the sector.

Commenting on the incident, the managing director of Centurion Security Limited, Group Captain John Ojikutu (retd), declared that the crime of that magnitude could be carried out by insiders, who have access to the restricted areas of the airport.

The security expert who insisted that there were numerous gaps in the recruitment exercise,  expressed worries over the recruitment process of some of the personnel designated to the critical areas of the airport, particularly  at the airside.

Wondering if background checks are actually conducted on the new employees, most especially those who work within the restricted areas of the airport, Ojikutu declared: “How do we dispense the personnel at the airport? What is their career progression? Some people were eased out of the system even when they still have more years to spend in service and after easing them out, the government would now engage inexperienced personnel to replace them.

“I was just being informed that about 300 personnel were brought in the twilight of the last administration. This is wrong. Do these people have the required knowledge of the aviation industry? Are they trained? What about the background checks on these personnel?

“The fact is that for you to loosen one runway lighting, it will take you about two to three minutes and in a situation where we loosened about 10 to 12 of them, it will take you a minimum of 30 minutes. You can’t do this without the knowledge of insiders. It is still the same staff that are stealing these facilities. The runway lighting is just a line light, which is just for directing the airlines to land.”

Besides querying the composition of airport security committee, Ojukutu, however expressed fears that the theft incident may affect the forthcoming ICAO safety audit of the nation’s airports and the entire aviation sector while insurance premiums on aircraft may rise as the nation would be rated as high risk by insurance companies.

While adding that the development could also trigger airfare increase, he accused the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, the country’s regulatory body of  failing in its safety oversight functions.

In the same vein, Mr. Olumide Ohunayo, the Director, Research, Zenith Travels Limited, Mr Olumide Ohunayo argued that  the theft of the safety equipment would increase airlines’ operational costs costs and that of aircraft leading companies and other relevant organisations.

Describing the stealing as embarrassing and tantamount to terrorism, Ohunayo

lambasted the FAAN staff involved in the criminal act even as he called on the government to look inward to prevent a recurrence which may endanger the entire sector.

He however disagreed with the notion that the theft may affect the ICAO audit, since the audit leaves room for gaps, which must be closed within a specific period.

His words: “It depends on how we handle it. In any audit, there are always gaps and if there are gaps, you are given time within specific period to fill the gaps.

“The effect of that gap action those criminal terrorists will cause us is that operators into Nigeria now might further hike their fares – passengers and cargo because there will now be increased cost for insurance, cost to provide extra security around their equipment based on what has happened at the airside, which shows that security is leaking and not watertight.

“Principal for me is that we have to look at the management of that runway lighting, someone puts it on, someone manages it and someone has the contact of buying it and we need to harmonise the management of the airport runway lighting so that we don’t have two agencies on usage and management.

“There is an insider threat in all these. They are some disgruntled FAAN staff and they are putting the airport at risk.”

Besides, Capt. Capt. Peter Adenihun, aviation consultant queried the appointment and engagement of some personnel in critical areas of the industry.

He said that for the sector to thrive and be regarded as safe for operators, there must be round pegs in round holes, lamenting that several persons without the industry knowledge were imposed on the sector.