The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has frowned at a situation where personal and security aides of highly placed individuals and top government officials who use the airports, flout traffic and security procedures.
The situation has deteriorated to the extent that “overzealous” aides assault other airport users and aviation security officials (AVSEC) on duty, said the FAAN Managing Director, Engr. Saleh Dunoma.
To this end, Dunoma called on concerned organisations and individuals, who use the airport facilities, to obey traffic rules in order to sustain the safety and security at the airports, especially the busiest, Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.
It is not an uncommon sight to see VIPs driving against traffic and blaring sirens and endangering the lives of others on airport roads across the country.
This much was confirmed by the FAAN boss, who stressed that government had observed a growing trend of flagrant violation of traffic regulations by VIPs and top government officials at the nation’s airports.
He also decried indiscriminate parking of vehicles by the aforementioned persons at the front of the terminal buildings, thereby, resulting in long queues and congestions.
Dunoma, who gave the warning in a statement by the spokesperson of the agency, Yakubu Dati, said the behaviour by the VIPs ran contrary to air transport operation regulations, as spelt out in Annexes 9 and 17 of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) convention.
He said, “To avert the undesirable phenomenon, which portends greater danger in the light of current security climate of the intensified concerns about possible use of vehicles as mobile bombs, all VIPs and top government officials are enjoined to comply with all civil aviation measures and procedures put in place by FAAN to ensure safety at all the airports”.
