Nigeria moves to curb corruption at its international airports by banning luggage screening at departure hall

THE Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, has taken a major step to curb corruption at the departure hall of international airports in Nigeria with the ban on the physical screening of travellers’ luggage. The ban takes immediate effect at the departure hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

Saleh  Dunoma, managing director, FAAN, who announced the ban on Tuesday, after the meeting with participating agencies, stated that it was part of the plan to ensure the implementation of the Executive Order recently issued by the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

“We have to meet the deadline set by the Executive Order. There are strategies in line with the order, but the concerned agencies need to meet regularly to ensure that these strategies are adhered to and improved. Concentration is on the Lagos airport because it is the key airport due to its size, complexity and passenger traffic. If we get it right in Lagos, we will get it right in other airports. Once we do that, I believe all the other airports will be easy for us,” he said.

According to him, participating agencies, including the Nigeria Police, Department of State Security, Quarantine Services, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Nigeria Immigration Services, Nigeria Customs Services and FAAN Aviation Security, among others, will implement the directive successfully.

Realnews reports that officials of the agencies who check luggage at the Murtala Muhammed airport disgrace the country by exhorting money from passengers. Sometimes the officials engage in undue haggling with passengers just to extort money from them under the guise of searching for prohibited items.

Prior to the ban, Nigeria appears to be the only country still conducting search manually as small countries in West Africa in particular have since seized doing such.

One of the passengers, who have passed through the airport recently, expressed happiness with the ban which she said causes undue delay in checking procedure at the airport and encourages corruption.

– June 7, 2017 @ 8:58 GMT |