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Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has highlighted the steps being taken by the Federal Government to curb incidents of financial extortion at Nigerian airports.
Nigerian airports are notoriously infamous for incidents of extortion of travellers by representatives of agencies saddled with the responsibility to ensure security at the air borders.
Addressing the concern during an interview on TVC's Journalists' Hangout programme on Thursday, October 10, 2024, Keyamo said the government has decided to adopt technology to tackle the issue.
He revealed that his office is collaborating with the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, to enhance security measures at all the airports.
Keyamo says Ribadu acquires 1,000 bodycams for airports security
He said the NSA has acquired 1,000 body cameras, which have been distributed to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria(FAAN), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and the rest.
He said training has commenced for officers of those agencies on how to operate the cameras, explaining that the cameras function like CCTV.
“They are not going to be subject to playback. They are going to be on live transmission to a command centre, so a command centre has been built for this purpose.
“We have shared those 1000 cameras between the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), immigration, customs, and others.
“The training is going on now,” he said.
The minister asserted that Nigerians will soon take pride in the upcoming aviation reforms, stating, “We are moving with the speed of light in that direction.”
As part of the ongoing efforts to bring improvements, Keyamo announced that his office is attacking the challenges surrounding MRO, which has been an albatross in the aviation sector.
“We have also signed an agreement on PPP (Public-Private Partnership) to establish an MRO in Abuja. That has been signed, and it’s only by way of PPP,” he said.