The Federal Government has said it needs about N25 billion to construct perimeter and operational fences across the 22 airports operated by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). The sum will take care of the over 500 kilometre landmass across the 22 airports .
General Manager, Corporate Communications, FAAN, Mr. Yakubu Dati , who confirmed this, said the amount was arrived at after a recent survey carried out by the authority.
At the moment, only four international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt have partial perimeter fencing. Failure to fence the airports has led to encroachments on the land. Dati said each of the 22 airports is about 50 kilometre long and would require serious investments for all of them to be properly fenced according to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) recommended practices.
ICAO security guidelines, he said, prescribes that all airports must be secured with double perimeter fences. Dati explained that there are other safety measures FAAN has taken in line with international best practice to boost security and safety within the nation’s airports.
He added that the agency introduced the perimeter patrol, built perimeter towers, which enables the Aviation Security, AVSEC, personnel and other security agencies have overview of the airport environment. This is in addition to the installation of latest technologies in strategic locations to increase surveillance. He also maintained that most of the leakages observed in the past by analysts and other aviation stakeholders has been closed by the authority.
. He said: “About two months ago, we invited a team from Airport Council International, ACI, to carry out security audit of our airports and they identified some gaps, which needed to be closed and we were able to close those gaps.
“That is why when TSA came calling about two weeks ago, we were given clean bill of health because all the loopholes have been closed. “Insider’s threat is another area that we are looking at. We profile anybody that works within the terminal or in the terminal in line with global standards.
It is after passing that we issue them the On-Duty-Card, ODC. Even at that, the ODC also have some levels of restrictions such that it is not every holder that has access to every part of the terminal. We have different levels and colours based on the level of clearance you have received.”
