Security Breach: FAAN Installs CCTV at Airport Runways

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) plans to install mobile Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras at the airside of major airports across the country to monitor possible security breach and runway incursion.

The agency said that with the procurement of the mobile cameras and improvement on perimeter fencing patrol, the era of airport incursions by unscrupulous elements would be a thing of the past.

Managing Director of FAAN, Saleh Dunoma, who disclosed this to journalists at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos, said that the mobile CCTV cameras would cover a distance of seven kilometers and could sight even long distances at night.

 

Dunoma agreed that security had been the major challenge confronting the global aviation industry, stressing that as some of the challenges are being tackled, the perpetrators of the act also design new ways to beat security.

He, however, reiterated the readiness of the management to tackle the menace headlong by procuring latest security equipment at all airports.

He said that some of the facilities were already procured and installed at most of the airports across the country, but expansion of facilities at these airports made it necessary for FAAN to improve on some of the existing equipment on ground.

“To some extent, we have these facilities in all the airports, but security challenges always come up in different forms. If you address this challenge, the challenge will come back again in another form. So, the only way out is to improve on our technology. As we speak, there are things going on at Lagos and Abuja airports to make sure that we cover all the restricted areas with CCTV cameras.

“This is ongoing; in Lagos, it is 80 per cent completed and it is about 70 per cent completed in Abuja. We will soon commission this and once it is commissioned, our people will sit up and monitor these restricted locations. This is going to help us a lot.

“In addition to that, we are buying another technology, which is a mobile system that has cameras on it and can see up to seven kilometers. So, we will position it and even at night, it has cameras that will watch all the sensitive areas of the airport; the runway, apron and the other restricted areas,” Dunoma said.