Leadership (Abuja)
Ime Akpan
4 July 2008
Abuja — The Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Richard Aisuebeogun has stressed the crucial role that technology has played in the practice, management and development of global aviation security.
Speaking at a seminar organised in Lagos by Travel and Business News, the FAAN managing director said specialised equipment "have made surveillance and screening of passengers more effective, less cumbersome and less stressful for both the passengers and security men alike."
Technology, Aisuebeogun further stated, has revolutionised airport surveillance as surveillance equipment has removed breaches in security resulting from loss of concentration due to fatigue.
"Curbing the trafficking in drugs and unlawful interference has also received technological boosts over the years as modern vapour tracers and itemisers are able to detect drugs and explosives. The introduction of computer-assisted passenger screening and positive passenger-bag reconciliation has gone a long way in improving the practice and management of aviation world-wide," he added.
To demonstrate FAAN's compliance with modern technology in its operations, Aisuebeogun said the agency had deployed an airport operations management system (AOMS) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos . The equipment, which according to him, was realised through a public private partnership initiative, incorporates a modern computer-assisted baggage-reconciliation system which is vital to aviation security. Besides, the FAAN managing director said the organisation had installed modern itemisers and other modern machines at some of the major international airports in the country to curb the incidence of drug trafficking and enhance security.
However, Aisuebeogun said that in view of the observed lapses in total reliance on detection technology, the human eye philosophy developed and promoted by Israel "is increasingly being incorporated into the global aviation security network to make it more robust."
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