Chinedu Eze
Following complaints of theft of vehicle parts by users of the car park at the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMIA), Lagos, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has deployed its security task force to the facility as well as areas around the park.
The car park was built and is being managed by Seymore Aviation Multi-level Car Park Company under a public, private partnership (PPP) with FAAN.
THISDAY learnt from a senior official of the agency that when the report of theft went virile on the social media, he was directed by the Managing Director to investigate and find out the real problem with the facility.
FAAN’s investigation revealed that there was no comprehensive coverage of the all the levels of the car park by CCTV and the company lacked adequate security personnel to effectively monitor movements at the facility.
According to the source, FAAN therefore deployed a senior AVSEC official to determine how to monitor activities at the facility and make sure it is secure for the users.
“Before now Seymore has its own security system but after the complaints from the car park users, I was mandated by the Managing Director of FAAN to investigate and find out what happened.
“So, we carried out security check and found out that the CCTV does not adequately cover the car park and the management does not have enough security personnel to effectively monitor the place and we also wanted to find out the person who said that cars parked at the place is at the owner’s risk.
“First we heard it was FAAN AVSEC official so we carried out investigation and also found out that an official of Seymore made the statement,” he said.
The FAAN official also told THISDAY that the agency has directed the company to urgently expand the CCTV to cover every part of the car park and to also link it to FAAN ANSEC security monitor so that both the company and the agency would jointly monitor activities at the car park.
“We also directed that more personnel would be engaged and we would also deploy our AVSEC personnel to provide adequate security coverage of the place. We found our also that there is no adequate illumination of the park so we directed the management to light everywhere in the facility because if everywhere is well lit it will discourage thefts,” the official said.
In a chat with THISDAY, the General Manager, Corporate Affairs of FAAN, Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu who confirmed the new partnership on security with Seymore, disclosed that the management of the company and FAAN officials held meeting yesterday to agree on how to immediately implement the directive the agency gave to Seymore.
Report of the incident of thefts at the car park went virile on social media during the Christmas holiday and airport users and industry stakeholders were incensed by the excuse that the vehicles parked at he facility were at the owners’ risk.
