FAAN aviation security personnel slumps, dies at Lagos airport

A Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) security personnel, Mr Usman Mohammed, on Friday slumped and died while on duty at the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.
Mr Olayinka Abioye, immediate past General Secretary, National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), confirmed the incident on Saturday in Lagos.
Abioye said: “The deceased was a former executive member of NUATE, FAAN branch. We learnt he was on duty yesterday when he suddenly collapsed and died before receiving medical attention.”
He said the deceased, who is survived by a wife and five children, had been buried according to Islamic rites.
Abioye described Mohammed’s demise as unfortunate, stressing that the FAAN management must give priority and urgent attention to the well being of workers.
According to him, some aviation security staff are being made to work more than the required eight hours per day without rest periods or compensation.
“It is said that some of them work for 12 hours at a stretch without break simply because the Directorate of Aviation Security is suffering from dearth of adequate manpower,” he alleged.
Abioye said although FAAN had been carrying out recruitment from time to time, such exercise was not on need basis as expected but on political expediency.
He said aviation security, which operates under Section 17 of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) convention, was critical to airport operations and must be adequately staffed.
Abioye, therefore, urged FAAN management to deploy more personnel to the directorate and also provide adequate medical facilities at the airport to prevent recurrence of such incident.