THERE was a bomb scare on Wednesday at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, prompting operatives to further beef up security at the airport to forestall any eventual bomb attack.
Following the alarm, security officials from the anti-bomb squad, the airport police and security officials at the Terminal Two of the local airport being managed by Bi-Courtney Services Limited, embarked on the screening of all vehicles and passengers going into the terminal.
The tight security put up by the security officials made it tough for travellers to gain access to the local airport to board their flights or purchase tickets.
As a result of this, passengers, especially those who had flights to board in the early hours, had to trek some metres to the terminal in order not to miss their flights, following the heavy traffic the screening caused.
At a point, the anti-bomb squad attached to the local wing of the airport had to make use of the BASL security metal detectors to carry out their checks on the horde of vehicles that plied that route, especially when work resumed on Wednesday after the May Day celebrations.
Many passengers, however, condemned the crude manner the anti-bomb squad carried out the exercise when they left the buck of the work to the Bi-Courtney security.
“This is most absurd. The anti-bomb squad, who were supposed to actually check the vehicles themselves, did not take the bomb scare seriously. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have allowed the other guys carry out the checks. It is even pathetic that they don’t even have their own material. As you can see, they rather chose to look into the booths of the cars. This is a crude method of carrying out checks when they are supposed to be fully equipped,” some passengers said.
However, in a telephone interview, the police commissioner in charge of the airport, Mr Olatunji CaulCrick, said the exercise became imperative due to security reports received by the command which indicated a possible bomb attack on the busy terminal.
CaulCrick said it was a normal routine as the police would not leave anything to chance in ensuring a seamless travel experience for airport users, affirming that the police had been ordered to carry out checks whenever the need arose.
The checks led to vehicular traffic spreading to Ikeja and Oshodi areas of the airport.
Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar, has ordered all state commissioners of police to provide adequate security for all media houses in the country.
The directive is coming on the heels of last week’s bombing of ThisDay newspaper’s office in Abuja.
The IGP, who was speaking during a parley with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday night, expressed worry on the attacks on media houses, wondering what harm they posed as they were merely doing their jobs.
He warned that attacks on media houses were unacceptable and vowed that the police would do all within their powers to put a stop to the menace of Boko Haram in the country.
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