FOLLOWING the terrorists’ siege at Kaduna International Airport over the weekend, local airlines are considering temporarily suspending flight operations to and from the airport.
Commercial flight operations along the northern axis have become the most risky, according to the operators, who prioritize safety before profit.
On Saturday, over 200 gunmen attacked Kaduna International Airport in Kaduna, murdering a Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) official and halting aircraft services for hours.
The military repelled the invasion from the airport’s runway end, but it threw the airport into chaos, and an Azman Air plane was unable to take off owing to sporadic fire battles around the aerodrome.
Modes:StandardAs at yesterday, The Guardian learnt Azman has suspended operations into the Kaduna Airport, pending the complete ease of tension in the troubled state. The Chief Operating Officer of one of the airlines said two carriers managed to escape the attack in the “red zone”.
Reports reveal that Azman has suspended operations into the Kaduna Airport, until the complete resolution of tensions in the unstable state.
According to the Chief Operating Officer of one of the airlines two airlines managed to escape the strike in the “red zone,”
“That is a sufficient red flag for aviation. The assurance of the authorities that normalcy has been restored is difficult to rely on. Remember that about a year ago, the same bandits attacked staff quarters of aviation agencies at the same Kaduna airport. Now, they (bandits) are more daring with the invasion of the airside. That is a big risk that I don’t think any airline should undertake for now. So, if airlines are pulling out of Kaduna, you cannot blame them. Better be safe than be sorry,” he said.
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) reassured a combined team of anti-banditry military soldiers and the FAAN Aviation Security Department’s crime investigation unit, to prevent another attack on the airport.
“Normalcy has since been restored at the airport,” Faithful Hope-Ivbaze, FAAN’s Acting General Manager, Corporate Affairs, said. The crew also discovered two abandoned motorcycles by the criminals.
“Additionally, a heavy reinforcement team from the Nigerian Defence Academy is on the ground to ensure the safety and security of airport workers and users. The FAAN AVSEC Department has equally released operational vehicles to the team for patrol purposes,” Hope-Ivbaze assured.
Group Capt. John Ojikutu (rtd), an aviation security expert, said the security breach was disappointing and underscored the dynamic character of aerodromes nationally, as well as regulatory protocol violations.
Airport security, according to Ojikutu, is not just about Kaduna airport, but about all airports in urban growth zones with sophisticated metropolitan road networks, such as Lagos, Benin, Enugu, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, Calabar, and so on.
“I have said it before; who is watching over these areas of our economic importance? Aviation Security is a function of national security and intelligence is the first layer of the six layers of Aviation Security. How does FAAN get intelligence? Only from the NCAA, which should be a member of the National Aviation Security Committee as demanded by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Do we have one? Ask the NCAA.
“After the first attempt last year, the NCAA needed to have asked FAAN to review the Kaduna Airport Security Programme for review or release an Administrative Directive to FAAN to review the Security Programmes of all airports that could be targeted by the hoodlums or bandits while the NCAA itself would review the National Civil Aviation Security Process (NCASP). There is a lot to do on AVSEC at our airports with multiple security agencies operating at different levels of the airport defence layers without a unified control,” Ojikutu said.
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