Chinedu Eze

 The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has upgraded security infrastructure at Nigeria’s airports, especially international airports in line with Standard and Recommended Practices (SARPS), which are technical specifications adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

To this end, the agency has replaced most of the security equipment with modern, state-of-the-art alternatives at the most critical areas of the airports, especially the international airports and it has also trained Aviation Security (AVSEC) personnel to effectively man the new equipment.

FAAN has also taken significant action to finally remove the notorious table where some security operatives stay at departures to physically search and allegedly extort passengers by providing alternative system, whereby security officials at the terminals can monitor passengers’ luggage through computer systems.

The new security equipment has the ability to single out all the prohibited items, including drugs, currencies, medicines and others simultaneously, thus making physical search of the luggage unnecessary, except those specially identified by the new system.

FAAN’s Director of Aviation Security Services, (DASS), Afegbai Albert Igbafe, spoke to selected aviation writers who toured the terminal facilities at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, at the weekend and said that FAAN has comprehensively replaced most of the security equipment at the strategic areas of the passenger and cargo service terminals and done away with the obsolete security machines in line with ICAO regulations and requests of some of the international airlines.

One of the new security equipment is the Orion 927DX machine acquired by FAAN and installed at the entrance of the new international terminal of the Lagos airport.

The equipment has the capacity to exhibit images in the Classic 4-colour and the new proprietary Spectrum 4-color (SP4) option providing superior image, allowing improved security by quick and accurate identification of threats and enhances quick passenger facilitation.

The machines are also designed to detect a wide range of explosives and narcotics respectively in real time during the scanning process by marking a potential threat on the X-ray image. 

Igbafe said by the time FAAN finished installing all the screening machines and the monitors, each security agency would have its own monitors and the tables would be put away permanently.

“The tables you see will be a thing of the past, you will not see any table here. There will be no physical contact, because what we are also doing is that when we fix those monitors and the machines dictate unaccepted objects, the concerned officials will take the passenger and his or her baggage to designated areas for physical checks.

“The designated areas will also have CCTV cameras. This is to ensure the passengers are not being exploited. When the machines dictate something, the Aviation Security (AVSEC) call the relevant agencies such as National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Customs, Quarantine, amongst others to follow up,” Igbafe explained.

He further explained that FAAN is now extending the machines to include six different monitors for the six security agencies present at the airport, so that officials could sit and monitor the bags on their screens.  

“Custom will have their screen. The Quarantine will have their screen and others will also have theirs. So, everybody will sit down while the bags go through the machines,” he said.

Speaking on AVSEC’s collaboration with the NDLEA in terms of drug investigation, he said, “Before we bought the new machines, our machines were not detecting some drugs but with the new machines, we will start to train some of the security agencies, like the NDLEA, the DSS, the immigration and the quarantine. 

Also speaking during the tour, Head of Department, ICT, at MMIA, Lagos, Chima Oge, said the new Orion 927DX machine has features that helps with identification of organic materials accurately and quickly either in range mode which highlights the areas based on range selected by the operator, and/or in Interactive mode which provides the operator the option to display the areas based on the value of the pixel.

Over the years, air travelers and industry stakeholders have expressed concerns that the table where security operatives, including NDLEA, Quarantine, Nigeria Customs Service officials conduct secondary checks after baggage have been screened by scanning machines only constitutes delays and amounts to unnecessary multiple checks at the airport. 

Few years ago, the federal government in promotion of ease of doing business removed the search table, but the security operatives surreptitiously brought it back, but FAAN has decided to use technology to permanently do away with the table.

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