The Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP Afegbai Albert Igbafe (Rtd), Director of Aviation Security Services of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN has disclosed that that they always arrest 20 to 30 airport intruders every night.

Disclosing this in an interview, ACP Igbafe stated this is a big challenge to the airport security.

He maintained that the problem they are having in this regard is country’s court system.

The Director of Aviation Security Services said when these culprits are handed over to the police before they know it, they are released.

Igbafe stated that the Legal Department of FAAN is collaborating with the Attorney General of the state to help us get mobile courts so these things will be handled swiftly.

He noted that: ” When we came on board, we had the ICAO audit and they gave us their own marks. We met a lot of issues when we came on board. We tried to fix a lot of them by providing some of the amenities like the CCTV cameras, we upgraded them. Now, presently, we are trying to do access control whereby every individual that is coming to the airport will be properly checked because we found out that we have a lot of concessionaires, we have a lot of security people who are not supposed to be on the airport that come in and out.
So right now we have put the access control in place, I think it will help us a lot and we have a lot of gaps during the ICAO audits so we’re trying to close up these gaps”.

On the airport security and the perimeter fencing which is an issue for years, Igbafe observed that the perimeter fencing has been an issue in the sense that they came on board, they had a lot of encroachments in the perimeter areas because its a vast land.

In his words “We have been trying to put in place with the little resources we have, mostly on patrol measures. We have patrol at night. We have observation posts, which are being manned by the AVSEC personnel. Then we have the joint patrols with the military, the Air Force, and the AVSEC personnel. And because of the perimeter area too we just recently launched the armed unit of the AVSEC.
But most of the issue we have has to do with the fencing. A lot of the fencing have been destroyed by the neighbouring communities”

On the allegations that some private jet are being used for money laundering, explained that recently the Minister launched a task force that are currently investigating private jet owners.

He they have had a meeting with the National Security Adviser, NSA, who gave them some guidance, some instructions and orders they are are following through the Minister and the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN.

But we are monitoring them. With the task force in place, we want to to make sure all the private jet owners adhere to the rules of FAAN, whereby everybody that is coming, with the planes or coming through their hangers will be properly screened by the AVSEC personnel, he said.

On mechanism put in place to ensure that everyone is checked including the
VIPs, Igbafe disclosed further that they are trying to launch the fast track system not just only for the VIPs, but anybody that is interested and want to be attended to swiftly, seamlessly.

He said nobody is given preferential treatment in the airport, even the Minister subjects himself to search, FAAN MD subjects herself to search.
including himself.

Igbafe added that they are preparing an algorithm whereby everybody will be put in the database and with the flick of the button, they will know those who have done their courses, those who are certified, the time they are supposed to go on certification, the time their certificates will be expiring.

On the use of Artificial Intelligence, AI, he said the Minister and FAAN MD are looking at some companies who have made propositions for that, adding that they are going to do the access control, as access control will work with an AI system whereby when somebody is coming into the airport with any weapon, the AI will detect it and immediately send a signal to the command center.

According to him: “When I came on board, I was shocked that AVSEC has been in existence for over ten years. But, their uniforms were not gazetted. Well, I’ve done that. AVSEC personnel were not being trained. Some people five years, 10 years, 15 years ago. Some people have been in AVSEC for about 20 years, they’ve not gone on the course. So, with the assistance of the MD and the minister. They released funds. Even presently, as I we are talking now, we have Ghanaians, Sierra Leoneans Gambians who are attending courses in our ASTC, which is the aviation security training center. Because we happen to be one of the security outfits or one of the countries that is certified by ICAO.
So, we are have achieved a lot. What we came the second international runway had been closed for over nine months. And we tried our best, the MD, the Minister, the Director of Airport Operations and the Director of Engineering. They all put heads together and it was re-opened.
I can assure you that between now and December, you will see a new face of Aviation and the airports”.