During this week’s Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa, the approval was granted for a contract to supply and install customised exclusive and narcotic detection screening systems across four international airports nationwide.
Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, disclosed this information to State House Correspondents after the meeting’s conclusion.
Keyamo highlighted that the detection screening systems, featuring a drive view mechanism, will be operational at Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport in Abuja, Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, Port Harcourt International Airport in Omagwa, Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano, and Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu.
“So it’s for the approval of the award of contract for the supply and installation of customised explosive and narcotic detection screening systems, with a remote and dual view for the international airports of Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt and Enugu.
“Luckily enough, the Council saw the need for this kind of equipment in order to relieve Nigerians of such experiences and it was graciously approved by Council”, he said.
Explaining the rationale for the approval, he said, “Since I came to office, we have been inundated with complaints of the harrowing experiences that passengers go through at the airports where they have to physically search their bags.
“You’ll see various agencies lined up; NDLEA, they’ll say open your bag, Immigration, they’ll say open your bag, Customs, they’ll say open your bag, EFCC, they’ll say open your bag. I’m sure you all know about that and it’s been really getting under the skin of Nigerians.
“So we thought we should do something like you have the TSA in America, where you have detection machines. So when they pass your bags through the machines, they detect explosives or any other thing and that’s the end of the search.”
He also disclosed that the Council approved a memo for the signing of a bilateral air service agreement with the Republic of Guyana.