The managing director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Capt. Rabiu Yadudu has said that if there is a need to close the Kaduna Airport it would be done but that such plan was not on the cards at the moment.
Yadudu who was reacting to the attack on its facility in Kaduna stated this during the visit of the senate committee on aviation to FAAN headquarters annex in Lagos at the weekend.
It would be recalled that suspected bandits attacked FAAN staff quarters in Kaduna last Saturday and abducted employees and their family members.
Yadudu who spoke on the incident during the visit of the committee said FAAN was working with the various security agencies to strengthen security at airports across the country.
“Since this happened we have been in communication with the same agencies and state government and of course there are so many things we are doing.
“We have some information. The thing did not happen around the airport, it is a thing that happened around our staff quarters and a lot of our staff they don’t live in the quarters.
“The incident is far from closing down the airport. It is a security concern that we have at our staff quarters. If there is a need to close, we would close but right now it is far away…for that kind of drastic action. Only a minor percentage of our staff stay at the staff quarters; the rest are leaving in the town.
“Even the staff quarters is fenced; so we are taking appropriate measures,” Yadudu said.
The managing director stated that prior to the incident, the agency had strengthened security at all its facilities and was doing that in collaboration with the security agencies.
“We are doing what we have been doing all these years; we operate airports and manage them. Managing and operating airports also entails you do the same thing for your staff. If you remember something like this happened last year and our staff were under attack, we coordinated very well with the state government, security agencies…did our own assessment and from what we observed and gathered from our investigation we came up with a very robust strategy to counter these challenges but now.
“Clearly, this challenges have evolved and that evolution means there is room now for us to also improve our own strategies to counter these challenges.
“We have been very much alive to our responsibilities and our staff will attest to that.
“The last time we had to meet directly with the state government and the air force to situation around the airport,” he added.
