‘You Have No Business Searching People’s Bags At Airport’

Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has stated that the Department of State Services (DSS) are not responsible for searching passengers’ bags at airports.

Naija News reports that Keyamo made this known during an interview on ‘This Morning’ programme on Arise News on Sunday.

Using Lagos International Airport as an example, Keyamo said passengers enter through the arrival door and immediately encounter a screening machine for their bags.

Keyamo said the bags are inspected at a joint inspection table after the screening, which causes congestion due to the lack of space.

He said the congestion often leads to blockages that extend to the entrance gates, but the ministry has dismantled the joint inspection table at airports.

According to the minister, DSS officials are meant to profile those travelling in and out of the country for security checks and not check passengers’ bags.

He explained that the agencies now work with aviation security at the screening machine to eliminate repetitive searches.

He said, “What is that joint inspection table? You will see customs, DSS, NDLEA, quarantine, and on and on, all lined up on the same table.

“Each of them telling you to open your bags, and they’ll be dipping their hands into your bags one by one, passing you on to the next agency on the same table, and all, you know, I have not seen this in any part of the world.

“So you can then observe all the bags passing through the machine jointly, without harassing anybody.

“That is why the machines are there in the first place. You, NDLEA, customs, if you notice anything like drugs inside or suspicious package, pull the person aside, take the person away into your private screening room, and do your further searches there.

“DSS, you are not, you have no business searching people’s bags. You are profiling individuals who are going out of the country, people who have been maybe who are under security checks and all that.

“Go and stay with immigration. At the point of stamping their passports, you can pull the person aside a person that ought not to travel.

“DSS can work with immigration at their table, and they can just roam around. Roam around the airport, check faces of people, profile them.

“If you want to pull people aside as you think they should not travel, pull them aside to a private room, but don’t create a nuisance at airports where you see they are checking people’s bags.”

Speaking on the federal government’s recently approved measures to curb harassment faced by travellers with various agencies stationed at airports, Keyamo said the aim is not to remove these agencies but to streamline how they perform their duties.

He added, “Nobody expects to go through an airport without security checks.

“However, the complaints we have consistently received from Nigerians have been complaints bordering on extortion, corruption, and perhaps even the very tardy process of these security checks.

“There are some practices we have noticed among the security agencies that are not under our control that we think do not align with the best practices all over the world.”