The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN)’s recent construction of an Emergency Operation Centre at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, has been commended by the deputy general secretary of the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, (ATSSSAN) Olayinka Abioye.

Applauding to the construction of the centres in major airports in Nigeria by FAAN, through the assistance of the World Bank and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Abioye, however, condemned the poor state of infrastruture at the Lagos airport especially.

His words: ”However, I wish to quickly draw attention to the state of our infrastructure, particularly at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, where almost everything is in a state of disrepair, due to dereliction of duty and or negligence of the management.

“I witnessed an auto accident weeks ago, (January 5th, 2010) directly in front of the Aviation Services and Logistics (ASL) and the FAAN powerhouse involving a bus and a car.

“The FAAN hospital ambulance, which was driven to the scene to evacuate accident victims had no horn or siren. It was helped out of the traffic gridlock by another vehicle. How much does these items cost that the management could not replace them despite several reports by the hospital authority? This is a shameful and irresponsible behaviour of our management, be it at the Regional or Headquarter level,” he added.

In its bid to meet the certification requirements of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), towards attaining Category One status for the Lagos Airport, the FAAN has completed the construction of an emergency operation centre at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

The multi million naira World Bank assisted project is a control centre that would coordinate emergency situations such as fire rescue, bomb threat, hijack rescue operation or terrorist activities at airports.

The availability of such centre is a basic requirement for the certification of international airport by ICAO.

Speaking on the development recently, FAAN’s Managing Director, Mr. Richard Aisuebeogun, said the project was 95 per cent completed in MMIA and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, while that of Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano, was 50 per cent completed. Aisuebeogun explained that provision had been made for an emergency operation centre at the Port Harcourt International Airport in the 2010 budget.

The FAAN boss, who said the provision of Close Circuit Television (CCTV) was of great importance at the airports, especially with the recent terrorist threats in the aviation world, used the occasion to appeal to the World Bank to ensure the early completion of the project, stressing that there was need to improve on the technology of the CCTV for optimum performance.