The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has awarded N3.233bn for the provision and installation of specialised unique narcotics detection screening equipment at five international airports in Nigeria.
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, SAN, stated this while briefing correspondents after the fourth cabinet meeting presided by President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The Minister said the detection screening systems would be built with a drive view mechanism in Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja; Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos; Mallam Aminu Kano Airport, Kano; Akanu Ibiam International airport, Enugu; and Port Harcourt International Airport in Rivers State.
Keyamo also said that the council recognised the need for the equipment to relieve the agony of prior experiences and the terror suffered by many Nigerians.
He said: “The two memos that Aviation presented today, and they were approved, one is a memo for the signing of a bilateral air service agreement with the Republic of Guyana.
“We have entered into an agreement with Guyana and they have been very anxious to have direct flights from Guyana to Nigeria.
“This agreement was entered way back in 2014, with the administration at that time, but you understand that international agreements, which are treatises, don’t come into force until their internal processes are completed in both countries.
“Our own internal process here involves a process of ratification of a treatise, so if I go out and sign an agreement with a country now, it doesn’t come into force, it doesn’t bind my country until I come back and then it goes through a process of ratification by the relevant authorities.
“In some cases, where you have to now domesticate it as a law, it goes to the National Assembly to pass into law, in line with the provisions of the constitution. In some other cases, it is just the executive that ratifies. In this case, it does not need domestication, doesn’t need legislation, it only needs the ratification by the executive, which was done today. So that is for the memo regarding the bilateral service agreement with the Republic of Guyana.
“The second one, it’s what Nigerians will be interested in because, since I came to office, we have been inundated with complaints of the harrowing experiences that passengers go through at the airports where they have to physically search their bags. I’m sure you all know about that and it’s been really getting under the skin of Nigerians.
“You’ll see various agencies lined up; NDLEA, they’ll say open your bag, Immigration, they’ll say open your bag, Customs, they’ll say open your bag, EFCC, they’ll say open your bag, and they will dip their hands in your bag.
“So we thought we should do something like you have the TSA in America, where you have detection machines. So when they pass your bags through the machines, they detect explosives or any other thing and that’s the end of the search.
“So it’s for the approval of the award of contract for the supply and installation of customised explosive and narcotic detection screening systems, with remote and dual view for the international airports of Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt, and Enugu.
“Luckily enough, the Council saw the need for this kind of equipment in order to relieve Nigerians of such experiences and it was graciously approved by Council.”
