Nigeria airport scanners sit idle
Source: Agencies |
August 12, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
BODY scanners bought for Nigeria's international airports in the wake of a Christmas Day bomb attempt remain unused months later, though officials said yesterday that United States air marshals now protect flights coming into the West African nation.
Harold Demuren, director general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, said that the government still needs to train officers to man the screening devices already in place at Lagos' Murtala Muhammed International Airport and at the international airport in Abuja. The machines have yet to be installed at the international airports in Kano and Port Harcourt, he said.
However, Demuren said explosive detection equipment already being used and full body pat-downs for international passengers will make sure a similar attack "never happens again." "We want to make our airports extremely unfriendly to terrorists," Demuren said at a US Embassy-sponsored press conference.
The Nigerian government purchased 10 body scanners immediately after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly attempted to bring down a Detroit-bound airliner with an explosive device hidden underneath his clothes. Abdulmutallab started his journey at Murtala Muhammed International Airport and only went through a metal detector before boarding his initial flight.
Security officials suggest that body scanners, which create detailed 3-D images of passengers' figures, would have shown the explosives that prosecutors say Abdulmutallab hid inside his underwear. However, that equipment now sits idle as international passengers walk through security screening at Murtala Muhammed, the oil-rich nation's busiest airport.
The US gave Nigeria four full-body scanners for its international airports in 2008 to detect explosives and drugs. Those machines remain in use by federal anti-drug agents at the Lagos international airport and elsewhere, though Abdulmutallab did not undergo a screening.
Since the bombing attempt, relations soured between the US and Nigeria, one of the country's biggest suppliers of crude oil.
The US initially put Nigeria on a list of "countries of interest" that included Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran and Libya, requiring incoming passengers to undergo additional screenings. That sparked an outcry in Nigeria that only calmed after the US eased the restrictions.
Harold Demuren, director general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, said that the government still needs to train officers to man the screening devices already in place at Lagos' Murtala Muhammed International Airport and at the international airport in Abuja. The machines have yet to be installed at the international airports in Kano and Port Harcourt, he said.
However, Demuren said explosive detection equipment already being used and full body pat-downs for international passengers will make sure a similar attack "never happens again." "We want to make our airports extremely unfriendly to terrorists," Demuren said at a US Embassy-sponsored press conference.
The Nigerian government purchased 10 body scanners immediately after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly attempted to bring down a Detroit-bound airliner with an explosive device hidden underneath his clothes. Abdulmutallab started his journey at Murtala Muhammed International Airport and only went through a metal detector before boarding his initial flight.
Security officials suggest that body scanners, which create detailed 3-D images of passengers' figures, would have shown the explosives that prosecutors say Abdulmutallab hid inside his underwear. However, that equipment now sits idle as international passengers walk through security screening at Murtala Muhammed, the oil-rich nation's busiest airport.
The US gave Nigeria four full-body scanners for its international airports in 2008 to detect explosives and drugs. Those machines remain in use by federal anti-drug agents at the Lagos international airport and elsewhere, though Abdulmutallab did not undergo a screening.
Since the bombing attempt, relations soured between the US and Nigeria, one of the country's biggest suppliers of crude oil.
The US initially put Nigeria on a list of "countries of interest" that included Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran and Libya, requiring incoming passengers to undergo additional screenings. That sparked an outcry in Nigeria that only calmed after the US eased the restrictions.
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