Securing Nigeria’s Airports

Business activities at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, appear to be taking an
ironic twist, particularly at the arrival terminal area, as touts and touting actions have now gained tremendous advantages at the arrival arena. Many arrival passengers have never been finding it easy with the influx of touts, who claim to be hustling at the airport for their daily bread. Some passengers brazenly argue or scream at them for foisting themselves on them.
The number of hustlers has risen in recent times and their manner of operation is to approach arrival passengers, whether known or unknown, to ask for assistance with the following opening gambit: “Anything for the boys? Your boys are here-o”; or “Welcome-ooo, your boys are hungry; we are loyal-ooo”. They constitute a nuisance, as several times open brawls had ensued among them on how to share money from some benevolent arrival individuals.
Nevertheless, a few of them conduct themselves well as they assist passengers to load or offload their luggage, and are appreciated by such passengers, while others shun them. The question is: Why does this situation persist while the airport management is apathetic, even when some commuters have been protesting? The security operatives, particularly the airport security personnel, appear to be overwhelmed by the situation.
Especially worrisome are the criminal activities of some airport taxi operators, who periodically abduct their passengers and take them off their routes to strange destinations, robbing, maiming, or even killing them. Furthermore, there seems to be an intentional endeavour by the taxi hire service operators to convert the airport into a motor park. Car theft and vandalism at the airfield, among other nefarious activities, are now widespread.
Flight ticket racketeers otherwise referred to as fraudsters, that were once flushed out of the airport, have resurfaced with their scandalous activities. This paper had initially reported their unwholesome acts when they emerged sometime last year, which were promptly tackled by the airport’s management. The phenomenon has taken another bold dimension as they carry out their actions more openly. They extort money from travellers who are not conversant with airport operations.
The Port Harcourt airport is not alone in this unpleasant state of affairs. Other airports in the country exist in a similar portentous state. Common criminals breaching security layers at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, raise a red flag that should bother all responsible agencies. Curiously, the flagship international airport in Lagos has become infamous for violations of security standards that civil aviation upholds globally.
Recently, Seymour Aviation Multi-Level Car Park which services the international entry port has become a den of thieves where parked vehicles are vandalised and assets stripped off. Last December, Arik Air filed an occurrence report with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) on the attempted robbery of its taxing aircraft by unidentified men who encroached the runway at the Lagos airport.
According to reports, runway robbers attempting to open the cargo compartment of its taxing Boeing 737-800 was the second of such foiled attempts recorded by the local airline in just two weeks. On December 16, 2021, it was the case of an ignorant auto-technician test-running a faulty car on the Runway 18L and heading for a collision with an oncoming Max Air Jet.
In March 2021, suspected bandits stormed the staff quarters of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) at the Kaduna International Airport and abducted some families. And one year later, gunmen attacked an area very close to the airport runway and a security operative with the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) was shot dead.
The MMIA recently witnessed another blight show. On Runway 18R, the mangled body of a young man who probably dropped from the undercarriage compartment of an aircraft was found. Security operatives who removed the body for further investigation believed that it could only be another failed stowaway attempt. As the busiest gateway in Nigeria, the Lagos airport has an unbeaten record of having the highest number of stowaways.
No fewer than 25 airports in the country are exposed to security breaches, due mainly to substandard fencing. Currently, some international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and Port Harcourt have partial perimeter fencing, while the others owned by the Federal Government are not yet properly fenced, a situation which has led to encroachments on the lands by some undesirable elements.
The alarm raised by the Federal Government over plans by some criminals to attack major airports across the country has further heightened the security challenges facing Africa’s most populous nation. Despite being plagued with leadership incompetence and a faltering economy, Nigeria also gasps in the grip of terrorism, banditry, and kidnapping. The threat to attack airports is a new dimension that must be prevented at all costs.
Nigerian aviation is not yet on the path of wisdom given its tolerance for petty thieves, touts, beggars, extortionists, accomplices of illicit trades and other corruption acolytes. They are all testaments to the vulnerability of the air transport system, and a loophole for criminals to explore. But to avert doomsday, it is time all responsible agencies woke up to their duties and sanitise the system for the good of all.
Every effort to protect our airports must be calculatedly executed and no one, no matter how highly placed, should be allowed to compromise security directives at the terminals. Passengers and workers within the airport premises should demonstrate responsibility because security is everybody’s business. They should be on alert and swiftly report perceived threats to the security forces. This is not the time for security agents to show overzealousness. Vigilance should be the catchphrase of everyone to collectively frustrate the stunts of criminals.