The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) during the weekend inaugurated a mobile surveillance vehicle to curtail incidence of cable vandalism and insecurity at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA).
The Managing Director, FAAN, Mr Kabir Muhammad said at the unveiling of the vehicle, at the international wing of the airport, that the organisation had also enhanced the CCTV cameras, physical surveillance and number of staff in a bid to improve security at the airside.
He said that the agency was in the process of procuring more operational vehicles for security purposes.
“FAAN has purchased six so far, and additional 10 are still expected, and we are still looking at other airports across the country, but for now, Lagos is the major concern.
“We are putting one here for a start. We have some radars at 18R and 18L and they will be feeding information to this, and we will be able to also monitor it from the tower,” he said.
On his part, Mr Sunday Ayodele, the Regional Manager, South West, commended the management for the provision of the facility.
Ayodele, who doubles as the General Manager, MMIA, said the move was to enhance the surveillance of the airside.
He gave assurances that the surveillance of the airport and airside would be better enhanced and get the desired result
“On the number of vehicles the agency currently has, we have only one now, but we are still expecting more of this.
“It has the static and the roving cameras in it and the essence is to be able to project the airside so that in case of any intruder, it will send a signal to us there and it will send a signal to the control room.
“Once we are able to sense the place, our people will go straight to the exact place. It was manufactured in Slovenia,” he said.
The Project Manager, Amina Tijani explained that the mobile surveillance vehicle tarmac camera had an inverter with batteries and rechargeable, with a generator provided in the vehicle.
“The mobile surveillance also comes with two multi-central cameras that are going to be mounted at the control towers with five radars; three on the 18R runway and the other two on the 18L.
“This monitors events on the runways and its environment. It would be mounted on the cameras, which would be monitored on the control towers and every single movement would be detected.
“The cameras are long range cameras that can detect long distance range to about 5km. it can detect a person and put an ID to the person, which means visual recognition of the person.
“It also has a GPS signal, which will download all the maps of the environment and with that, you can calculate the distance where the person is from you and you can give the location of the person through the map,” he said.
Tijani said the equipment works under all weather conditions.
Recall that FAAN arrested 21 cable thieves and other miscreants at the airport in August.
Abdullahi Yakubu-Funtua, spokesperson of FAAN, said the Joint Monitoring Task Force (JMTF) and the Aviation Security Crime Investigation and Intelligence (AVSEC-CII) Unit conducted raids leading to the arrest of the cable thieves and other miscreants.