The Federal Government has been advised to restrict the complete body scanning of to passengers who are traveling to the United States of America(USA) only due to heightened threats of Al Qaeda terror gang against her citizens. The advise was given by the Assistant Secretary General of Airline Operators of Nigeria(AON), Alhaji Mohammed Tukur in an interview with NigerianAviationNews today in Lagos.
However, he said those that would not want to be subjected to the complete body screening through the 3D Body Imaging Screening machine for one religious reason or another should not venture traveling to the U.S in view of the latest security breach by the alleged Al Qaeda agent, AbdulMutallab who attempted to bomb a Northwest flight in Detriot on December,25,2009.
According to Tukur, passengers not traveling to the U.S should be saved the embarrassments of the inhuman exposure of their privacy.
He said that the government and aviation authorities should device another means to tighten security at all airports instead of adopting in totality the U.S option of body imaging machine.
He describe as unfortunate, the listing of Nigeria among the terror watch list of the U.S adding that Nigerian government had in the recent past did its best to contain pockets of crisis such as those of the Boko Haram,Jos ,Bauchi and lately the Niger Delta militants.
He believed that the absence of President Yar A’dua contributed to the unfortunate labeling of Nigeria among the countries put under watch and that if the president had been around, he would have spoken with the U.S President,Barak Obama on the involvement of the Nigerian bomber and apologise for the embarrassment the incident had caused.
Speaking on the planned take off of Rahamaniyya Airline being mid-wife by him for Alhaji Rahamaniyya of the Rahamaniyya Oil&Gas Company, Tukur said the January,2010 take-off month was no longer feasible in view of the non-readiness of the chairman and some internal crisis in the parent company.
He added,:’It is the chairman that can say specifically when the airline will debut.I cannot wait for people who are not ready’.
Asked whether he was planning to float an airline,he went rethorics and said,’You wait.In the next few days we are likely going to unveil something new’.
He said in the country today,existing airlines are faced with acute shortage of aircraft for their operations while there are many with Airline Operating Certificate(AOC) but are not in service due to lack of fund to purchase or lease aircraft,adding that there was nothing wrong in investing in any of the existing airlines to make them stronger and financially stable to be able to acquire more planes and expand their route network.
He said that the Minister of Aviation,Babatunde Omotoba has not been helping the industry as expected.Instead of paying more attention to the up-grading of existing infrastructures in the four major airports of Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt as directed by the Federal Government last year,Omotoba was busy exerting energy in constructing a new airport in his home-state.
While saying that the Minister misplace his priority in the developing the industry to an enviable and vibrant status during his tenure, he has allowed his personal interest to overshadow the national interest.
Tukur noted that the airport the Minister was planning for his State in Ekiti would end up like those of Gombe,Katsina ,Akure,Ilorin ,Yola ,Sokoto and Akwa Ibom .
He queried,:’How many airlines patronize these airports today?What is the level of passenger traffic into and out of the aforementioned airports?Story By-Lateef Lawal
No comments:
Post a Comment