Domestic
airlines operating flights into Kano, Maiduguri, Yola and other
volatile cities the North are currently carrying out safety and security
audits of their operations to determine whether they should continue
flying to the cities or not.
The development came a few months after
some of the domestic carriers cancelled night-stops for their crew and
aircraft in extremely volatile northern cities, especially Maiduguri.
The latest security and safety audits,
which started some days ago, it was learnt, followed the bombing of a
motor park in Kano on Sunday, which left about 75 people dead as at the
last count.
Currently, airlines that fly into the key northern cities are IRS, Aerocontractors, Arik, Chanchangi and Medview.
The Director of Flight Operations of one
of the airlines flying into the northern cities said the carrier had on
Tuesday dispatched two separate teams of officials from its safety and
security departments to Kano and other cities in the North to ascertain
if the airline would need to continue its flight operations into the
volatile cities or not.
According to the official, domestic
airlines had a year ago carried out similar security and safety audits
in the height of attacks from the deadly Islamic sect, Boko Haram.
Sources familiar with the situation said
virtually all the concerned airlines were already re-examining their
operations into the volatile northern cities.
The sources said the airlines believed
they needed to review their operations into the cities as the suicide
bomb blasts at an inter-state commercial bus park in Sabon-Gari area of
Kano showed that air transport could also be a target of the deadly
Islamic group.
The blasts, which also injured scores of passengers, drivers, hawkers and visitors, destroyed five luxury passenger buses.
A Marcopolo bus belonging to Gobison
Motors had on board over 70 passengers when it was attacked by the
suicide bombers just as it was about departing the busy park for Lagos,
it was learnt.
Aviation security consultant and former
Military Commandant of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport,
Lagos, Group Captain John Ojikutu, (retd), said the domestic airlines
were reacting rather late to the potential threat posed by the
activities of Boko Haram to the aviation sector.
He said airlines should have carried out
such security and safety review and audit of their operations to the
North long before the latest deadly bombing in Kano.
Ojikutu said, “The airlines are starting
too late. Aviation and airliners are targets of terrorists. I mentioned
it a year ago. All the domestic airlines need to review their security
programmes to see if they can sustain the present threat. I have seen
that the security programme they have cannot sustain the threat.
“Airlines need to establish a list of
their frequently travelled passengers so that it will make it easy for
them to sort out non-frequently travelled passengers. The airlines need
to come with a Computer Assisted Pre-Passenger Screening that will help
them identify passengers who they need to carry out enhanced screening
on.
“Also, government needs to come up with a
list of people that are threats to civil aviation. Government can then
circulate the list internally through the Nigerian Civil Aviation
Authority to the airlines.”
However, a top official of one of the
airlines flying to the North told our correspondent on Thursday that the
carrier would continue flying to the region as preliminary findings
from the safety and security audits of its operations in volatile
northern cities, especially Kano, revealed that certain security
measures that could prevent attacks from the Boko Haram sect and other
insurgent groups were in place.
“Along the road leading to the Kano
airport, there are several security checks at the moment. And within the
Kano airport, certain security checks have been put in place by the
government,” he said.
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