Plain-clothes security operatives are to be prevented from entering secure areas at the nation’s airports to check illegal activities in such sensitive places.

The Director of Security Services, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Group Capt. Usman Abubakar (retd.), gave this indication at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport in Calabar, Cross River State during a meeting with critical stakeholders in the aviation sector.

Abubakar, who is the Chairman of the Executive Order 1 Committee set up by the Presidency to instil sanity in the airports, said the ban on plain-clothes security men in secure areas would check illegal activities by fraudulent operatives.

The committee is saddled with the responsibility of implementing far-reaching policies that will eradicate touting and curb bribery, among others by critical stakeholders in the sector.

According to Abubakar, some plain-clothes operatives have been discovered to carry out illegal operations at the airports when they are not on duty.

He, however, said that such restriction would be determined by the peculiar condition of the airport.

He said, “There are categories of areas where they would be. As part of discussions with stakeholders, we said airport managers should look at their peculiarities and find a way around it. If the airport security feels there are areas that they want them to operate, they can go ahead.

“We discovered that some of them come back when they have closed from work and find their way to areas where they ought not to be. They are the ones we are targeting and not a total ban across the airport.”

Abubakar said the Presidency was poised to ensure that sanity was brought back to the airports in order to restore passengers’ confidence (local and international) in Nigeria.

The manager in charge of the Margaret Ekpo International Airport, Mr. Sunday Ayodele, had during the deliberations warned that heads of various agencies would henceforth be penalised if their workers failed to return On-Duty-Card after the close of work for the day.

“The ODCs are not supposed to be taken out of the airport. As from today when they are taken outside, the heads of agencies will be penalised. We are going to begin proper implementation of this because the ODC is different from your organisation’s identity card,” he said.

The General Manager, Customer Services, FAAN, Mrs. Ebele Okoye, said efforts would be made to ensure that only quality services were rendered in all the nation’s airports in order to erase the negative image caused by bad eggs in the system.

She warned operators in the airports to stop begging for money from passengers.