FG moves to stop drug traffickers as belt tightening begins
Recent revelations of collusion between airline and ground handling workers in planting illicit drugs in the baggage of innocent passengers have called for belttightening measures in baggage screening.
As the issue rages with new revelations coming out, airlines have come to exonerate themselves from the issue arguing that baggage handling is the sole responsibility of the Nigeria Aviation Handling Company (NAHCo) and the Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCo) which are the two leading ground handlers in aviation.
But in another instance, it was argued that the ground handlers cannot plant illegal items in passenger baggage without being abetted by an airline staff.
This argument has placed the burden of thorough investigation on the appropriate agencies of government to investigate the unscrupulous airport staff conspiring with drug cartel to incriminate innocent passengers.
It was the Chairman, Presidential Committee on Elimination of Drug Abuse (PACEDA), Brig. General Buba Marwa, rtd, who on April 11, 2019 during a visit to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) alleged that some drug suspects had their bags wrongly tagged by airline workers working in cahoots with ground handling officials.
He said investigations after the recent execution of some Nigerians in Saudi Arabia showed that some of the victims were innocent but their baggage was wrongly tagged by airlines in connivance with baggage handlers.
He said, “We have heard about the huge arrests in Saudi Arabia including the recent execution and preliminary
investigations had shown that innocent passengers, in some cases, have had luggage that do not belong to them tagged by airlines in their names.
“And on arrival at their destinations, of course they didn’t know that anything was tagged against their names only for the security agencies to track them with a luggage that has drug which does not belong to them.
“We have had that situation. And as we all know it is better for 99 per cent people to get out than for one innocent person to be killed”.
One of these instances alluded to by Marwa is the case of Zainab Aliyu, an undergraduate who was detained in Saudi Arabia for allegedly concealing a drug in her bag only to be discovered later that some drug cartels actually planted the substance in travellers’ luggage. Zaynab was however freed yesterday after intervention from the Federal Government.
This has therefore put the airline and ground handling workers on the line and subjected them to intense scrutiny, searchlight and monitoring.
Daily Trust learnt that no fewer than 15 airport workers mostly those working with ground handling companies are being prosecuted for involvement in drug trafficking by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in the last one year. Despite this, observers say it appears there are more unscrupulous people that need to be flushed out from the system to sanitize the airport environment and not endangering members of the travelling public.
Aviation security expert, Group Capt. John Ojikutu called for thorough investigation of the matter, saying, “It is right for the NDLEA to focus on the airline’s ground handling staff responsible for checked-in baggage”.