The team of auditors from the
International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) said that Nigeria
performed excellently well in the nine-day aviation audit conducted on
the nation’s security system.
Mr Fan Ndubuoke, General Manager, Public
Affairs, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) said that the team
leader, Mr Steven Neu, who gave the report said that the team was very
impressed with the National Security Programme because there were very
minimal open-items that needed to be closed.
“Nigeria surpassed our expectations. We
reviewed the 2008 audit before we commenced this exercise; but we
discovered there have been massive improvements in the security systems
at the airports.
“To Nigeria’s credit, all the minimal
open-items were closed immediately. The audit focused on the eight
critical elements,” the statement said. According to it, Nigeria is one
of the first countries in the world to go through the USAP Continuous
Monitoring Assessment (CMA) Audit.
It commended the security agencies at
the airports: the aviation security, Nigerian Police, Airport Command,
the DSS, Port Health Services, the Air Force, the Nigerian Drug Law
enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the Quarantine Services. The statement
said that now that the USAP CMA activity had been completed, draft
findings and recommendations would be provided to the regulatory
authority.
It said, “After 60 days, ICAO will
forward the USAP CMA audit report to Nigeria. In 30 days, Nigeria will
submit its comments on the audit report if any. “Within another 30 days,
the country will submit to ICAO its Corrective Action Plan (CAP)”. The
statement said that the Director-General of the NCAA, Capt. Muhtar
Usman,in his response thanked the ICAO auditors for a very thorough and
transparent audit.
It said that he expressed joy that
Nigeria’s performance in the last audit exercise was higher than the
preceding audit in 2008. The statement said that Usman assured ICAO that
Nigeria would not rest on its oars but would continue to ensure that
the nation’s air transport operations were secure and safe.
