Nigerian airports in urgent need of perimeter fences

The recent incursion into Akure airport runway in Ondo State by cows that caused Air Peace aircraft to delay landing for about 20 minutes has again brought to the fore the need to improve aviation safety in the country by ensuring better security at the airport runways and airside. Besides the incursion by cows, thieves have also been reported to open up cargo hold at the airport.

One of the ways to ensure improved security, especially at airport runways, is to provide perimeter fences to prevent access. These fences are frequently made out of single vertical metal bars connected at the top and bottom with a horizontal bar. They often have spikes or barbed wire on the top to prevent climbing.

BusinessDay’s checks show that out of the 26 airports operated by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), only Abuja airport has a comprehensive perimeter fence.

While the Federal Government has disclosed plans to capture the construction of perimeter fences in all airports in the 2019 budget, experts say 2019 may be too late as Nigerian airports continue to remain porous, posing serious threats to security.

John Ojikutu, member of Aviation Round Table (ART), an aviation industry think tank, and chief executive of Centurion Securities, says a simple provision of security fences across airports in the country would have prevented cows from overrunning the runways.

“The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and FAAN should be blamed for absence of security fences across our airports. There are certain things we must have in place before we are certified to operate the airport. If NCAA approved the airports to be operating without perimeter fences, the airline should know that,” Ojikutu says.

He recalls that in the 1990s, when he was the airport commandant, people were farming on the runway side of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport until he had to put a stop to it.

There is, therefore, the need for immediate steps to provide perimeter fences at Nigeria’s airports to address some of the security lapses.

IFEOMA OKEKE