No Plan To Shut Down Kaduna Airport
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
| The Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Capt.. Hamisu Yadudu has ruled out the possibility of shutting down the Kaduna International Airport despite the attack on the residential quarters of the staff and other agencies by gun men yet to be apprehended Speaking while receiving members of the Senate Committee on Aviation who were on oversight function of aviation agencies ,Yadudu disclosed that its staff and five family members and other security personnel were abducted. According to the Managing Director,the abductors have not made contact with the Federal Airports of Nigeria or any other agency stationed at the Kaduna International Airport. . Yadudu regretted the attack on its staff quarters, but vowed that the management, the State Government and the various security agencies would not relent in their efforts at ensuring safety of humans and equipment at all the airports across the country. Before the unfortunate attack occurred, he said, the management had beefed up security networks at all the nation’s airports, stressing that the current attack would not discourage it from clamping down on any heinous crimes anywhere within the sector. “This incident is entirely different from closing down the airport. It’s a security concern that we have at our staff quarters. A lot of our staff do not even live in this quarters. If there is need for us to close, we will close it, but this is even far away from it.” He explained” no need for that drastic action. Just small percentage of our staff stay in the staff quarters The rest are all living in the town. You can see that the staff quarters is fenced. We are taking appropriate measures, but like I said, we just have to improve to counter these challenges.” Capt. Yadudu said that despite the security fence, the gun men forced their way in .” We have security personnel attending to the area, but somehow, somewhere, things happened and now it is time for us to counter as we have been doing always.” “Security is a race. Security challenges will always come and we will improve and on our own part, we keep improving to outsmart them. Anytime there is a breach of the security architecture, we will still do the same thing. Our staff can attest to this, the state government can attest to this and even the security agencies can tell you this.” He revealed that FAAN had since 2020, further beefed up security at the various airports across the country, which had foiled attacks in the sector, maintaining that the agency in collaboration with the other security agencies and the Kaduna State Government would rise to the occasion. . Chairman Senate Committee on Aviation, Smart Adeyemi, canvassed for embrace of local government policing, stressing that Nigeria as a federating unit should not shy away from taking a decisive action to tackle the menace. He explained that despite the increase in the population of the country over the years, the security architecture remained same, while Nigeria was faced with porous borders. The one time national president of Nigeria Union of Journalists agitated for the restructuring of the entire country in a bid to address the various security challenges confronting it and wondered why some continued to kick against restructuring. He maintained that the agitation for restructuring won’t lead to secession of the country as claimed in some quarters. “There is a need for us to evolve new security architecture for Nigeria. Our population has increased and we are still faced with porous borders . Nigeria is not a clear cut federal system. I don’t know how to describe this country; federal system or unitary system, but I do know that Nigeria is said to be a federation and all nations where federalism is practiced, we do not run a unitary system of policing.” “I think the time has come for Nigeria to evolve a system that will appreciate the size of the nation and the diversities. You don’t recruit a graduate we graduated from University of Maiduguri for instance and you post him to Lagos to come and police. He doesn’t know the system and the areas. So, criminals can take advantage of that. “What I am saying in essence is that the time has come for Nigeria to look at not just a state police, but a local government policing and that is why in the United States, their security is very effective because when you visit any county, the police are aware of those who live there.” Adeyemi appealed to the Federal Government to make available special funding for the sector in a bid to improve security in the aviation industry. Besides, Akinkuotu in his address to the senate committee on aviation, lamented that hours after the staff were abducted, the kidnappers were yet to make contact with the agency. He sought the cooperation of the National Assembly in protecting assets of NAMA at various stations and airports, stressing that some of its equipment are regularly vandalised by hoodlums. He warned that this may jeopardise efforts of the government in improving air safety in the sector. Earlier, Capt. Musa Nuhu, the Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) enumerated paucity of funds, drop in aviation revenues and adequate training for personnel especially technical staff as some of the challenges facing the agency. Like others, he appealed to the visiting Senate Committee to partner with the agencies in order to move the sector forward and provide seamless services to their various clients. |
