FORMER Special Adviser to the President on Aviation, Captain Shehu Usman Iyal has advised government to consider the welfare of security operatives at the airports as critical in order to eliminate internal threat and sabotage
Captain Iyal spoke at the sideline of the ongoing Nigerian Airports Security Week with theme: ‘Promoting Security Culture at Nigeria Airports’ stressing that with good welfare, the insider threat factor in aviation can be minimised.
He said ‘’we have good men, we have the personnel present, all they need is proper welfare, when I say welfare, you as a security agent knows that if you close from work, you know have a home you are going to and when coming to work, you know there is a mode of transport available to take you to your workplace or some allowance for that, you have launch allowance that will make you work, and if you are sick, there is a clinic dedicated for you and your family to attend.’’
‘’These are major areas that spur patriotism and dedication to duties. We have enough good hands, well trained and intelligent and they have the equipment. If you look into their welfare like I said, you will be shock the tremendous improvement that will be recorded.’’
Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Captain Rabiu Hamisu Yadudu who spoke on potential threats to the airports following recent bandit attacks on transports infrastructures; said FAAN is looking at everything happening and taking steps to secure its airports.
FAAN MD said, ’I want to assure Nigerians and the travelling public that the airports are safe. We are doing a lot of things in terms of security around the airports that we cannot make public at all time, but the most important aspects; we are fully on top of them.’’
He added ‘’we have done a lot of training and it is continuous, our security programme is approved by the CAA, which is not an arbitrary approval, it is a regulated approval from the CAA which it is competent and appropriate.’’
On arming the FAAN AVSEC, Yadudu said despite receiving approval, until the agency put in place necessary infrastructure to accommodate the arms, it will not deploy weapons to Aviation Security (AVSEC) personnel.
