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Terrorism: Nigerian airports 96% secure – ICAO

By on April 6, 2016

Nigerian airports are 96 per cent secure, the International Civil Aviation Organisation has said.

This is coming as the organisation announced that it had commenced high-level discussions with African countries on measures to address and counter the spate of terrorist attacks at airports on the continent.

The ICAO stated that Nigerian airports came out with a “very good result” after a recent security audit conducted by the international aviation regulatory body.

The President in Council, ICAO, Dr. Bernard Aliu, who disclosed this to journalists in Abuja while being hosted by stakeholders in the sector, also stated that in a period of about 90 days, the safety audit result for airports in Nigeria would be made available by the organisation.

Aliu said, “With respect to Nigeria, we have worked very closely. I’m sure a lot has been achieved during this time. We just recently had the security audit of Nigeria; the result was about 96 per cent and I think that is a very good result. We await the safety audit result in the next 90 days.

“In the area of capacity building, we have been working very hard with the aviation school in Zaria. We want to transform Zaria into a regional training centre of excellence with the ICAO seal, and I’m hopeful that we will get that through. So, in the area of capacity building, we have done that.”

On terrorist attacks at airports, Aliu stated that ICAO had been interfacing with aviation ministers on the African continent as regards the issue, and described the development as a challenge.

He said, “No matter what happened in Mali, Somalia, Egypt or Ghana, and because aviation security is very sensitive, I cannot explain to you some of the strategies that we are discussing. But please be rest assured that it is one of the critical issues that we are discussing at the moment.

“ICAO and Nigeria will have to collaborate very closely on this matter. Few months ago, I sent representatives from ICAO to Nigeria and to neighbouring countries like Chad, Niger and Cameroon to do an assessment within the region. Arising from that will be strategies that we are going to implement, but I cannot tell you that now.

 

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