Having two viral security breaches in less than six months at a leading national international airport leaves much to be desired.
In the last couple of months, instances of security breaches upon the huge number of different security outfit both governmental and otherwise have become a serious issue of urgent national importance.
Fact checks show that the culprits’ are never detected by security operatives but ordinary concerned Nigerians in an area that is naturally restricted.
Whereas some analysts are tempted to link the breaches to poor training and deployment intelligence, others suspect connivances.
The worst was the case of a non-Nigerian; a Nigerian for that matter, having access deep inside highly restricted area in the airport only to be detected by video shot by one of the Port Harcourt-bound passengers which captured Adamu entering the fuselage of the aircraft with hand luggage and also climbing one of its wings
Though Usman Adamu was identified after as a madman, why and how a madman had free access to restricted area at an international airport are yet to be resolved by airport security agencies.
Reports have that he found his way to the Lagos airport and climbed a Port Harcourt-bound Azman Airlines plane.
The Police, which said the Nigerien could not speak or understand English Language also said that investigation was still ongoing to ascertain how Adamu gained access to the heavily restricted area at the airport. Six months down the lane, no report on the matter had been made public.
Though he was later apprehended by Aviation Security Personnel of FAAN and taken to detention facility before the case was transferred to the Police for further investigation, the last information on the matter was the placement on indefinite suspension of the Aviation Security Unit heads on duty when the incident occurred.
Only last Friday, panic emerged at same airport on the airside as a yet-to-be-identified man mounted a moving Air Peace plane.
Though the man was said to be arrested by security operatives, but the major issue was that the man was only suspected not even by a security personnel, but by the pilot of a private jet coming behind the Air Peace plane.
It is now clear that the Muritala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos is in need of total security overhaul as latest two cases of security breaches were not detected by detailed security operatives, rather ordinary Nigerians who are there for different purposes.
Though the affected airline, Air Peace, hurriedly acclaimed that the said the man was a stowaway who thought the plane was heading overseas, in security parlance, which is not tenable and remains a collective threat to the generality of innocent airport users.
Air Peace was however, quick to aver in a statement that the suspect was being held by the industry regulator for further investigation.
The terse Air Peace statement read in part, “This morning, at exactly 9:10 at the MMA1 Lagos, an Owerri – bound Air Peace aircraft was taxing towards the threshold for take-off, when a man, in his twenties, emerged from the bush along the runway and tried to gain access into the aircraft through the wheel-well.
“There was a private jet behind the aircraft. The pilot-in-command of the private jet informed the Air Peace pilot-in-command that a young man obviously in his twenties, was trying to force his way into the aircraft.
“The security wing of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria was alerted and the man was accosted and whisked away. He is currently in the regulator’s custody. When interrogated on why he took the action, the man stated that he thought the aircraft was headed overseas.”
Though the Police Public Relations Officer, Airport Command, Mr. Joseph Alabi, said the command was still investigating the incident, the question is after investigations what next?
