In continuation of the battle against touting, extortion, and unnecessary delay of passengers at Nigerian airports through multiple human checks, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria has commenced the procurement of machines to replace human checks of luggage, particularly at customs checkpoints.
FAAN made this known over the weekend, during a tour of the airport, where our correspondent was shown the various newly installed machines.
The Director of Aviation Security at FAAN, Igbafe Afegbai, said the customs table where they physically check travellers’ barges will be dismantled in a week’s time.
Both industry stakeholders and travellers have, at different times, complained of the customs checking point/table within the Murtala International Airport Terminal. While stakeholders criticised the customs activities within the terminal, travellers also described it as an avenue for extortion.
Recently, Customs officers and the FAAN security chief, alongside other top officers at the authority, clashed with Customs officers at the airport over duty overlap.
This development forced the aviation workers to threaten a nationwide strike, an action scheduled for March 31, 2025.
The complaints and feedback from passengers may have forced FAAN to deploy the machines that are being installed at screening points at the Lagos International Airport to totally eliminate the manual search.
The machines, which include six pieces of Orion 927DX, a full-body scanner, and an itemiser bought by FAAN, have the capacity to exhibit images in the Classic 4-colour and the new proprietary Spectrum 4-colour options, providing a clear image, allowing improved security by quick and accurate identification of threats, and increasing throughput.
Afegbai stated that the machines are also designed to detect a wide range of explosives and narcotics in real-time during the scanning process by marking a potential threat on the X-ray image.
While speaking with journalists, Afegbai stressed that by the time FAAN finishes installing all the screening machines and the monitors, each security agent will have their own monitors, and the tables for physical human checks will be quashed.
“The tables you see will be a thing of history; you will not see any table here. There will be no physical contact because what we are also doing is that when we fix those monitors and the machines dictate unaccepted objects, the concerned officials will take the passenger and his or her luggage to designated areas for physical checks.
“The designated areas will also have CCTV cameras. This is to ensure the passengers are not being exploited. When the machines dictate something, the aviation securities call the relevant agencies, such as the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Customs, and quarantine, amongst others, to follow up.”
He further explained that FAAN will be extending the machines to include six different monitors for the six agencies present at the airport, for their officials to monitor the bags through the screens.
He added, “Customs will have their screen. The quarantine will have their screen, and others will also have theirs. So, everybody will sit down while luggage goes through the machines.”
He further explained, “Before we bought the new machines, our machines were not detecting some drugs, but with the new machines, we will start to train some of the security agencies, like the NDLEA, the DSS, the immigration, and the quarantine.”
Also corroborating the FAAN security chief, head of department, ICT at the airport, Chima Oge, said the new Orion 927DX machine has features that help with the identification of organic materials accurately and quickly, either in range mode, which highlights the areas based on the range selected by the operator, and/or in interactive mode, which provides the operator the option to display the areas based on the value of the pixel.
He also revealed that the machine could detect undeclared funds, drugs and other illicit materials.
