MANAGING director Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Captain Rabiu Hamisu Yadudu has said that the situation at the Kaduna Airport does not warrant the closure of the airport stressing that the occurrence happened at the quarters and not the airport.
This is just as he said FAAN is communing with security agencies as well as the Kaduna state government on improved security measures while stating that he could not comment on an ongoing investigation.
He reacted to yesterday’s security breach at the FAAN Quarters in Kaduna where some aviation staff were abducted stating that FAAN has always done all it can to protect its workers but that the security challenges are evolving and so the airport management had to evolve newer strategies to tackle the threats
The FAAN boss also recalled that the airport managers faced similar security tensions in Kaduna in 2020 and were able to beat that with the aid of security agencies and the Kaduna State Government stressing that they are still in communication with same agencies.
Yadudu said, “We are doing what we have been doing all these years, we operate airports and managing them. Managing and operating airports also entails you do the same thing for your staff. If you remember something like this happened last year and our staff were under attack, we coordinated very well with the state government, security agencies and studied and did our own assessment and from what we observed and gathered from our investigation we came up with a very robust strategy to counter these challenges but now, clearly this challenges have evolved and that evolution means there is room now for us to also improve our own strategies to counter these challenges.
On security of FAAN staff he said, “We have been very much alive to our responsibilities and our staff will attest to that. The last time we had to meet directly with the state government and the air force to situation around the airport.
“Since this happened early today we have been in communication with the same agencies and state government and of course there are so many things we are doing, we have some information and it is not very proper now to go into details because we did the same thing last year and we are improving on it very much.
“The thing did not happen around the airport, it is a thing that happened around our staff quarters and a lot of our staff they don’t live in these quarters. If there is a need to close, we would close but right now it is far away I believe for that kind of drastic action. Only a minor percentage of our staff stay at the staff quarters, the rest are leaving in the town. Even the staff quarters is fenced so we are taking appropriate measures, we are taking them but as I said we just have to improve to counter the challenges. The fence was broken, we had security personnel attending to the area but somehow somewhere things happen and now it’s for us to counter as we have been doing. It is a race, security challenges always come and evolve and on our part we keep improving to outmatch them. Anytime they try to breach on our security system we try o improve on them.
Armed bandits in the early hours of Saturday March 6, 2021 attacked the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Quarters in Kaduna, abducting about 11 persons who are staff of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and their families. Read also: Abduction alert: Armed bandits attack Kaduna Airport staff quarters, abduct NAMA, NIMET staff
This is similar to a situation on same March 6, 2020 when the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has asked its staff to stay off the road leading to Kaduna International Airport at early and late hours over the current state of insecurity on the route.
It said, in an internal memo dated March 2 and signed on behalf of the manager by Dali D. J., an assistant manager, FAAN the airport road has become unsafe owing to the activities of gunmen.
The memo read: “The current insecurity state around our airport axis/road cannot be over emphasised. The very recent attack on a FAAN staff and other commuters along the airport road close to NDA is a clear testimony. Hence it has become imperative to advice all airport staff to completely avoid early /late hours movement along the airport road.
“All FAAN departments are to adhere strictly to FAAN HQ early directive on duty roster.
“Other agencies and companies in the airport are advised to take advantage of the NOTAM (notice to air man) issued by NAMA to avoid movement of staff along the airport road at late/very early hours of the day.
