All is not well between the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN and the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS.
The FAAN Management is irked over the recent security breach by officers of the NCS at the hajj and Cargo Terminal of the Lagos International Airport.
According to the spokesperson for FAAN, Henrietta Yakubu in a press release, “at about 1745hrs on Thursday, January 20, 2022, while the AVSEC officers on day duty at Gate 3 were profiling a NAHCO vehicle that wanted to access the Security Restricted Area (SRA) via gate 3, the Customs Area Comptroller for Hajj and Cargo Terminal suddenly emerged and pulled off behind the NAHCO vehicle that was being attended to and CSC Agunbiade, a customs officer on the Area Comptroller’s entourage later shoved aside the AVSEC Officer at the gate, forcefully took over the gate and opened the gate for the Comptroller and his escorts to forcefully access the Security Restricted Area via the gate”.
She says, while accessing the gate, the armed escorts to the Comptroller threatened to beat up the AVSEC officers at the gate if they dare resist their assault and breach of security.
Yakubu stresses that, “this blatant abuse of the privilege of bearing firearms by the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS has become a recurrent threat to the Safety and Security of our Staff and our operations”.
It adds, “While we keep on working to resolve all our challenges decisively, we hereby urge all stakeholders to pls respect our mandate by being of disciplined and Professional conduct in the interest of national security and operational safety”.
