The federal government has approved three billion naira for airport scanners in a bid to reduce multiple agencies involved in manual bag checks at the airports.
This was disclosed by the Aviation Minister,Festus Keyamo in Abuja, saying that the proposed solution involves the supply and installation of state-of-the-art customized explosive and narcotic detection screening systems.
According to him, the approved contract will cover major international airports in Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt, and Enugu.
He said, “it’s what Nigerians will be interested in because since I came to office, we have been inundated with complaints of the harrowing experiences that passengers go through at the airports where they have to physically search their bags.
“I’m sure you all know about that, and it’s been really getting under the skin of Nigerians.
“You’ll see various agencies lined up; NDLEA, they’ll say open your bag, Immigration, they’ll say open your bag, Customs, they’ll say open your bag, EFCC, they’ll say open your bag, and they will dip their hands in your bag.
“So we thought we should do something like you have the TSA in America, where you have detection machines. So when they pass your bags through the machines, they detect explosives or any other thing and that’s the end of the search.”
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