Aviation security committee runs into technical hitches, gets extension

The Ministerial Committee set up by the Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, to access aviation security in Nigeria was unable to complete its assignment within the three weeks period earlier assigned to it due to technical hitches.
The ten-man committee was set up on 5th February, 2016 and had three weeks to complete its assignment. Based on the timeline, the committee was supposed to have turned in its report to the Minister of Aviation by the end of February.
The Committee Chairman, Air Commodore Hambali Tukur (rtd), told our correspondent exclusively that the committee had only gone half way with the task due to technical hitches it experienced.
Though he didn’t give specifics on the technical hitches, he said the hitches have fetched them an extension to continue with their assignment.
“Unfortunately, we’ve not completed our assignment as scheduled. We ran into some technical hitches thus our job is half way completed as at now. But we’ve been given an extension to enable us do a thorough job,” he said.
On their findings so far, he said “at this point, I’m unable to give you our findings but as soon as we complete our investigations, we will write our findings and recommendations and submit to the minister.”
The committee had in the second week of February began assessing airport security infrastructure across all airports in Nigeria. it had previously studied all security regulations of airports.
Air Commodore Tukur (rtd) had, during the inspection of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja, told our correspondent that when the minister inaugurated the committee, he tasked it with certain terms of reference which included identifying deficiencies in the overall aviation security, performance of the individual airports and assessing the risks associated with such deficiencies.
“Our hope by the grace of God is that after we have completed the assignment, our recommendations will be geared towards making aviation safer in Nigeria, thereby contributing to aviation security both at airport level and the airspace,” he said.