Aviation Security: FAAN unveils 120 firearms bearing AVSEC taskforce personnel

History was made on Monday June 24, 2024 in Aviation Security in Nigeria when Management of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) unveiled the first batch of 120 firearms bearing Aviation Security (AVSEC) Special Force across the nation’s international airports.

In pursuit of the mission to beef up security across airports in Nigeria, training of the 120 officers of the Aviation Security (AVSEC) Special Force began on April 8, 2023 with 40 participants.

Speaking at the commissioning of the 30 man squad attached to International wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport Lagos, Managing Director/Chief Executive of FAAN, Mrs. Olubunmi Kuku said it is a remarkable moment for the agency as it takes constructive steps to get Nigeria aviation security team kitted in line with the global standards.

According to her, “This is for them to help us in terms of securing our assets, in terms of helping to secure lives, as well as the people within the aviation environment specifically at the airports. We spent a significant amount of time in terms of training them… identifying the sorts of individuals that are part of this squad.

“They  will continue to engage as well as work closely with other security agencies.”

Kuku who however allayed any fears of the security team deploying their arms for use as excessive force in the course of their duty, advised passengers and airports users to go about their businesses in an orderly manners.

“The arms they carry shows that they are now an elite squad that will complement the aviation security staff that we have,” she added, “what is critical is that we want to make sure that we can deter people. We hope that we do not have to use force. In the event that they need to, they will coordinate with all of the other security agencies. The focus is to make sure that they are helping us in terms of executing all of our desires, specifically around making sure that there are no illegal activities going on.”

Speaking on the facilities where the personnel will be deployed, the FAAN Chief Executive said the members of the elite taskforce personnel would first be deployed to international airports in the country and subsequently to domestic airports across the country.

“We are starting with the five international airports: Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, and Enugu. There is a similar exercise going on. We do have about 120 people who have been trained. It is a recurring training programme. In Lagos, I believe we have about 30 of them.”

Kuku who also expressed gratitude to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR),  Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development , Mr Festus keyamo (SAN) the National Security Adviser, Ribadu, for their support in achieving this noble objective, said, ” We did have some challenges starting off initially, but with their support, we’ve been able to get this rolling. So we’re grateful. And we’re ready to serve.”

On collaboration with sister security agencies at the airports, she said ,“We’re also collaborating very closely with all of the security agencies across the airports.”

Kuku who said the next phase for the project is coordination. So you see that we started a number of campaigns over the weekend, largely around making sure that we say no to corruption at our airports. They’re here, as I said, to make sure that we deter.
We see all sorts of elements, unscrupulous elements who are coming in, who are potentially attacking individuals, and we don’t want that to continue to happen. But as mentioned earlier, the idea is not to use any force.
We need to make sure that the people who work within our community in the airports are also behaving in a manner that is palatable and conspicuous to our passengers.”