Kehinde Fajobi
Festus Keyamo, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, has called for the Department of State Services (DSS) to stop searching passengers’ bags at airports, citing a need for streamlined security processes to reduce congestion and harassment.
Speaking on Arise News’ This Morning programme on Sunday, Keyamo said, “DSS, you have no business searching people’s bags. You are profiling individuals who are going out of the country, people who are maybe under security checks.”
He also criticised the overlapping duties of multiple agencies at airports, including Customs, NDLEA, and Quarantine, which he said cause delays and inefficiencies.
“All these agencies at our airports are not directly under our control,” he noted. “Customs should focus on imported items, not items being exported.”
Keyamo highlighted complaints from Nigerians about extortion, corruption, and cumbersome security checks.
“Nobody expects to go through an airport without security checks,” he said, “but the practices we’ve noticed among these agencies are not aligned with global best practices.”
Citing the Lagos International Airport as an example, Keyamo described the congestion caused by the joint inspection table, where several agencies simultaneously inspect passengers’ bags.
“What is that joint inspection table? You will see Customs, DSS, NDLEA, Quarantine, and others, all lined up, dipping their hands into people’s bags one by one,” he said. “I have not seen this in any part of the world.”
The minister announced that the joint inspection table has been dismantled.
Agencies now collaborate with aviation security at the screening machines to reduce redundancy.
“So you can then observe all the bags passing through the machine jointly, without harassing anybody,” Keyamo explained.
“If you notice anything suspicious, pull the person aside and conduct further searches in private.”
Keyamo reiterated that the DSS should focus on profiling travellers at immigration points rather than conducting bag searches.
“Go and stay with immigration. At the point of stamping passports, pull aside individuals who ought not to travel,” he advised.
“Roam the airport, check faces, profile travellers, but don’t create a nuisance by checking bags.”
He also suggested that Customs officials use clear signage to indicate items requiring declaration, as is done in other countries.
“This issue of exportable items is actually the concern of the country you’re flying into, not ours,” he added.
Keyamo emphasised the need to identify and remove corrupt individuals within aviation security, stating, “We must clean up the system to ensure smooth and transparent operations at our airports.”