Government needs N25b to fence off 22 airports, says FAAN

The Federal Government requires at least, N25 billion to construct perimeter and operational fences in all the 22 airports managed by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

General Manager, Corporate Communications, FAAN, Yakubu Dati, who stated this at the weekend in Lagos, said that a recent survey carried out by FAAN indicated that to completely fence the 22 Federal Government-owned airports, FAAN would need N25 billion.

According to him, each of the 22 airports is about 50 kilometres long and would require serious investments for all of them to be properly fenced in line with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) recommended practices.

Dati, however, stated that there were other safety measures FAAN had taken in line with international best practice to boost security and safety within the nation’s airports.

He pointed out that the agency had introduced the perimeter patrol, built perimeter towers, which enable the Aviation Security (AVSEC) personnel and other security agencies to have a full overview of the airport environment and installed latest technologies in strategic locations to increase surveillance.

He also said that most of the leakages observed in the past by analysts and other aviation stakeholders had been blocked by the authority, stressing that this had made it possible for FAAN to scale the United States Transportation Security Administration (TSA) security audit carried out earlier in the month.