 for its participation in searching passengers’ bags at the airports.){kind=link}
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has condemned the Department of State Services (DSS) for its participation in searching passengers’ bags at international airports.
He said this while speaking on ‘This Morning’ program on Arise News. He said the DSS should focus on screening the bags that may pose as a risk rather than searching people’s luggage.
He further noted that the role of the DSS is to identify and screen bags traveling in and out of the country for security purposes not to ransack people’s luggages.
He said, “We’ll sit down, but we needed to take this step. 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.”
While addressing the long queues in the airport, he stated that the role of the customs officials is to focus mainly on the imported goods not the exported items.
“All these agencies at our airports are not directly under our control; you have multiple agencies, DSS, NDLEA, Customs, and Quarantine.
“And these were in place before we came into office, and they were not directly under my control for us to begin to remove them from the airport.”
He noted the significance of the security checks but suggested for an organized approach to prevent corruption and congestion.
He cited an instance using Lagos International Airport where there are numerous reports of delays and congestion.
He suggested that the issue of security threats should be handled by NDLEA and Customs rather than searching people’s luggages.
He suggested that DSS should work together with the immigration officers at passport control to monitor the passengers rather searching their bags.