Feb. 10, 2014
DailyPost
The Department of State Security, DSS, may have dismissed a directive from the Ministry of Aviation to stay away from the nation’s international airports.
DailyPost was reliably informed that till date, no reason has been given by the ministry for the instruction.
Our source, an operative of the DSS, described the development as unfortunate, wondering what the Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah, intends to achieve by asking them to leave the airports.
“I still cannot understand what the Minister had in mind when she issued such directive. DSS is not under the Aviation Ministry, so she can’t order us around; we are still there”, he said Monday morning.
According to him, only the President, through the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), could give such order.
“Personally, I do not think the Commander-in-Chief will even approve such. He knows our importance to these ports; he appreciates our collaborative efforts with other security arms and I’m sure he is not ready to compromise the nation’s safety”, he stated.
He further observed that the order, communicated to the SSS leadership a few weeks ago, has raised serious doubts about the the Federal Government’s seriousness on security at such places.
According to him, at a time the DSS had successfully foiled incidents of possible espionage, subversion, sabotage and terrorist activities at the airports, the order if effected, spells doom for the country.
He said, “security may not only be easily breached, the task of the agency, which is to oversee internal intelligence will be sorely missed by other relevant government organisations saddled with the responsibility of keeping watch at the terminals”.
Nigeria’s international airports are Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos; Port Harcourt International Airport, Port Harcourt; Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja; Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano and the newly approved Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.