Minister tasks aviation security committee

THE minister of State for aviation, Hadi Sirika has constituted a ten man ministerial committee for the assessment of aviation security in Nigeria.

The committee which was inaugurated in Abuja is headed by Air Commodore H. Tukur (rtd). Other members of the committee are Alhaji Abdullahi Suleiman Ciroma; Mr. Ayodele Obilana; Mr. Akin Olateru; Mohammed Olugbenga Odunowo.

Others are Dahiru Ance; Alhaji Munzali Umar; Col El-Mustapha Umar (rtd); Captain Tosin Adelaja and Capt. Bello Ocheja.

As part of its term of reference, the committee is mandated to identify deficiencies in the overall aviation security performance of each airport and assessing the risks associated with such deficiencies.

It is also expected to provide prioritised recommendations to assist each airport in addressing identified deficiencies; review Nigeria’s civil aviation security architecture and identify weakness; determine the vulnerability or otherwise of the nation’s airspace and proffer solutions to ameliorate identified gaps; identify the vulnerability of the nation’s airports to security breaches and suggest ways to fix them.

The committee will also carry out security survey of the nation’s international airports with a view to enhancing the implementation of security provisions in line with Airport Security Programmed (ASP), the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) provision; assess the nation’s international airports security performance, in terms of the level of implementation of the critical elements of an aviation security oversight system in line with ICAO standards of Annex 17 and security and the relevant security- related standards of Annex 9 and examine other issues related to security not covered by the above terms and proffer solutions.

The committee is expected to complete its assignment by the end of the month.