Stowaways and the role of government

OVER a month ago, the news filtered into the country’s aviation sector of  how a 22-year old Emmanuel Ugochukwu was reported to have successfully stowed away in the spares compartment of a Lagos/London bound Boeing B747 aircraft operated by Medview Airlines.

According to information gathered, Emmanuel was lucky to have cheated death as he was returned to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport unhurt.

Though the ability of the guy to survive the attempt generated debate across the sector, there had been few similar cases where stowaways survived their deadly attempts while majority had met their Waterloo.

However, from all indications, there must have been a serious complicity in the latest case as the Emmanuel was said to have sneaked into the spares compartment of the aircraft where engineers keep their tools in the night that preceded the flight.

As the saying goes; it takes two to tangle, there must have definitely been a dangerous network responsible for making it so easy for the stowaway in question to achieve his deadly mission even though he did not sail through at the London end eventually.

According to the investigation carried out by the security agents, Emmanuel was assisted into gaining access into the Medview Airline aircraft through the effort of one Michael Bamiro, a security guard working with ALMN Security at the international airport.

The discovery of Bamiro as an accomplice in the latest incident may be a surprise owing to the nature of how things work at the Lagos airport and other airports for that matter;  for Emmanuel to have been able to beat all security networks around the airport to gain access to an aircraft openly parked on the tarmac unnoticed, showed a serious insider threat.

This brings to the fore the concerns many key players in the sector had raised and still raising about the lapses in the security apparatus of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria across the nation’s airports.

Agreed that FAAN may have been overwhelmed by the unlimited number of private security agencies at the airports particularly at the international airports, but one thing that can not be taken away is the fact that there are many loopholes on ground for anyone like Emmanuel or Bamiro to capitalise on to achieve their aims.

Prior to the latest stowaway incident, the cry had been over the porous nature of the Lagos airport in view of the too many unmanned access entries including: the Ikeja axis, the Oshodi by Agege Motor road axis, the Oshodi/Mafoluku axis, the Oshodi/ hajj camp/toll gate axis not to talk of the weak perimeter fences through where intruders from communities around the airport come in and go out of the airport comfortably.

Besides these leakages, the major security breach to contend with is the issue of ‘Insider Threat’ which requires urgent attention of the federal government.

Apart from shouting over the porousity of the airport, there is an urgent need for FAAN and government security agencies to now beam searchlight on those working at strategic areas of the Lagos airport and other airports in the country.

The need to focus attention on those working at the sensitive parts of the airport particularly the airside becomes imperative in view of the high level of poverty and corruption in the society presently which can make any of such workers compromise safety for pecuniary gains.

The time has come for the government security bodies to carry out a detail profiling on the workers from FAAN, airlines, ground handlers, private security companies and others who in view of their functions have access to sensitive parts of the airports.

This will save the relevant authorities any looming dangerous incidents in view of the constant efforts being made by terrorists to target aviation.

The country is lucky today that it is the story of a stowaway that is being talked about. But a man who could assist a stowaway into an aircraft can equally help a terrorist into an aircraft to probably blow it up for money. The time has come for government to help FAAN beef up security around the airports.