Cab operators raises alarm over threat of touts to airport security

…says terrorists could use them

Car hire operators across airports in Nigeria said the federal authority must urgently curtail the activities of illegal cab drivers around the country’s airports as they pose grave danger to the security of passengers and facilities around the terminals.

The operators, under the aegis of Airport Car Hire Association of Nigeria (ACHAN) disclosed that 98 per cent cases of missing passengers has been established to have boarded unregistered cabs at the airports, whose drivers takes such passenger (s) to unknown locations.

ACHAN also said terrorist elements could infiltrate such cabs to bomb airport facilities since they often drive close to the arrival halls of the airport terminals.

President of ACHAN, Chief Stanley Worlu Dike said FAAN should put urgent measures in place to curtail their operations as they have increasingly floods major airports in Nigeria.

Chief Dike, who spoke at ACHAN 2015 AGM in Lagos urge FAAN to provide office space for ACHAN members as the association complement the efforts of government in providing job opportunities for young Nigerians.

Also Chairman, Board of Trustees of ACHAN, Alhaji Muili Yinusa told aviation correspondents that the military location at the General Aviation Terminal 1 in Lagos has become a safe haven for such unregistered operators.

He said “a lot of illegal vehicles operate from the military location at the GAT and when they steal passengers’ luggages or properties, they run down to look for the Chairman of ACHAN.”

Alhaji Yinusa urged FAAN to cancel the proposed ‘Pay As You Go’ policy the airports management authority is set to impose on ACHAN members.

“We pay millions of naira to FAAN annually, so we are supposed to enjoy certain privilege as other concessionaires, this is too much on my people”, he explained further.