Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria has warned travellers and visitors to be cautious when boarding airport taxis in Abuja in view of the new wave of security threat posed by some illegal taxi drivers.
FAAN’s Regional General Manager at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, Mr. Chris Bature, gave the warning in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said, however, that security measures put in place by FAAN and other security agencies at the airport had reduced the activities of fraudsters and touts at the airport.
Bature said that FAAN’s security operatives had discovered that fraudsters had devised a new system known as “one-chance,” where a taxi driver would carry passengers from the airport and rob them on the way.
The FAAN official advised travellers to make use of registered taxi drivers or official car-hire taxis with evidence of registration or FAAN identification cards upon arrival and when departing the airport.
Bature said that the rate of crimes at the airport had drastically reduced, due to the activities of security agents, following the measures initiated by the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, to make Nigeria’s airports safe and secure for travellers.
“The frequency of suspects arrested at the airport has dropped because we are working tirelessly in conjunction with the Air Force, Police and other security officials to apprehend criminals day and night to secure the airport.
“Presently, the security challenge at the airport is that of ‘one-chance,’ where illegal taxis carry passengers and along the way, they will push out the passengers and do away with their belongings.
“We are advising member of the public to use the official airport taxis if they must use commercial vehicles from the airport to avoid ugly incidents,” Bature said.
A document given to NAN by the FAAN Crime and Investigation Bureau, showed that 180 suspects were arrested between June and October this year for offences ranging from drug peddling, illegal car hire operation, stealing, touting and ticket-racketing.
Four suspects, Kenechukwu Eze, Mohamadu Abdulkadir, Keneth Udo and Emmanuel Igwe, were arrested on Wednesday for illegal car hire operation and were handed over to the police for prosecution.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Commander at the airport, Mr. Lawal Hamisu, also revealed that the number of drug traffickers arrested at the airport had reduced by half in comparison with 2011.
He told NAN that the number decreased, following the installation of modern scanners at the airport between January and June.
Hamisu had said that only five suspected drug peddlers were arrested at the airport as against the average of 10 monthly in 2011 before the installation of the screening equipment.
“We arrested a minimum of 10 drug barons monthly in previous years but since the beginning of this year, it has gone so low that in a month, there may not even be an arrest,” he said.
