Aviation Security Experts Worried over Designation of Two Sudanese Airlines to Nigeria

By Chinedu Eze

Aviation experts have expressed fear over the federal government designation of two Sudanese airlines to operate to the Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, just as the world commemorates 20 years anniversary of September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States by al-Qaeda.

Informed source from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) confirmed to THISDAY yesterday that the federal government designated Sudan Airways and Sun Air Aviation and two Nigerian carriers, Kabo Air and Skypower Express, to operate between the Sudanese city of Umm Badr and Kano in Nigeria, as the two countries have long-term Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA).

Reacting to the decision of the federal government, former Chief Security Officer of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Festus Adeboye, told THISDAY that the regulatory authority, NCAA, should have considered the security implication of designating two Sudanese airlines to operate to Nigeria.

He said the threat might not be directly on aviation but on the country because currently, Nigeria is going through security crises that could be exacerbated by further influx of arms from Sudan.

According to him, “Our regulatory body ought to have considered the security implication of that decision. They should know the security undertone of designating two Sudanese airlines to Nigeria, but maybe NCAA may have made recommendations against it, but the federal government decided to suppress it.

“They can bring arms to the country through porous security system. Why are the airlines not coming to Lagos, which has all the security apparatus? United Nations airport security personnel and the US Transport Security Administration (TSA) visit and inspect Lagos airport regularly. But a lot of things can be hidden at the Kano airport.

“Maybe this is to help those from Northern Nigeria who sneak out of the country for medical services through Arab countries to Germany to avoid publicity. They don’t want the people to know their health status. With Sudanese airlines, it will be very easy to do that.”

Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of Centurion Securities Limited and the Secretary-General of Aviation Round Table (ART), Group Captain John Ojikutu (rtd), also told THISDAY that Sudan and Nigeria have had a long BASA relationship that resuming air link between the two African states should be nothing to worry about.

He said: “Sudan has been one of the countries we have in our BASAs, and like the Saudi Air, they have been flying to Kano in the days of Nigeria Airways. They went underground like the Nigeria Airways did; if they have decided to begin operations as we are planning too, it will be wrong for us to stop them if there is no strain in our diplomatic relationship.”

But in his article on 9/11 attacks, Ojikutu pointed out that the possibility of similar attacks in Nigeria is real because there is lack of coordination among security operatives at the airports.

“Although there had been no direct reported attacks of bombing on Nigerian airports, the possibility of such attacks is real if one considers the multilateral layers of security agencies at our airports working independently of one another without coordinated effective authority. The setup of the security system at the Nigerian airports today is a challenge to the national security and are still not different from the set up at the US airports before the 9/11 attack,” he stated.