FG To Bar VIP Aides From Loitering Around Airports

In a bid to ensure security, the Federal Government has introduced measures to forestall unnecessary loitering of unauthorised persons at all the nation’s international airports.

The unauthorised persons, according to the government, include protocol officers, aides and escorts of dignitaries who are usually in the habit of following their principals to restricted parts of the airports.

Also, the Federal Government has announced steps aimed at curtailing the gridlock at the international airports, saying the present situation has become a source of embarrassment to the nation.

Announcing these at a press briefing on Monday, the Special Adviser to the President on Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation, Prof. Sylvester Monye, said President Goodluck Jonathan had in September 2013, set up a committee to achieve this as part of his transformation agenda.

According to him, the committee has representatives from the Nigeria Police, Office of the National Security Adviser, Nigerian Army, Nigerian Air Force, Nigeria Customs Service, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Department of State Security Services, Nigerian Immigration Service, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and the Federal Road Safety Corps.

He added that the President was worried over the poor security at the five international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Kano.

Monye, who is also the Chairman, Presidential Committee on Airport Security, announced that from May 1, 2014, all visitors to Nigeria, including foreign dignitaries and officials of multilateral institutions, would be required to submit themselves to immigration officers for requisite scrutiny and clearance.

He said, “Over the years, it was the practice of government’s protocol officers, aides of dignitaries, protocol officers of private companies, unauthorised uniformed military and security officials to move unhindered in restricted areas of our airports. This unwholesome milling around in the immigration and customs areas is a threat to national security.

“The idea is to stop all those who are not supposed to be within the precincts of our airports from using such facilities for loitering, and to stop the impunity of government officials and military officers and personnel, who are not supposed to be at the airports, from using their positions to operate in such facilities.

“Henceforth, no protocol officer/aide will be allowed into the arrival/baggage halls of our airports, and no aide to inbound passengers, including trolley handlers, will be allowed into the baggage halls. However, accredited Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ protocol officers may be allowed in restricted areas.”

Monye added that all security agencies at the airports had been mobilised and duly sensitised to arrest any violator of the new measures, which were aimed at bringing about sanity to the process of air travel.

The special adviser said the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation had already issued circulars to the respective stakeholders on the implementation of the directive, even as airlines had been notified to carry passengers along on the new measures.

He added that in the implementation of the new security measure, there would be no sacred cows as senior public officers, including governors, would be arrested if they violated the rules.

According to Monye, government is working on a single platform to facilitate the exchange of information sharing for passenger profiling and check-in for the purpose of tracking persons on the watch list in order to minimise the amount of checks that passengers had to go through when travelling.

He said part of the strategies included the re-calibration of operational equipment at the airports to facilitate screening of passenger luggage without physical examination.