DSS Shouldn’t Search Passengers’ Bags – Keyamo

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has stated that the Department of State Services (DSS) should not search passengers’ bags at airports.

Keyamo made this statement on the ‘This Morning’ programme on Arise News on Sunday.

“We’ll sit down, but we needed to take this step. DSS, you are not, you have no business searching people’s bags,” Keyamo said.

“You are profiling individuals who are going out of the country, people who have been, maybe who are under security checks and all that.”

Keyamo also addressed the issue of multiple agency checks at airports, which often cause long queues. He suggested that customs officials should focus on items imported into the country, rather than exported items.

“All these agencies at our airports are not directly under our control; you have multiple agencies, DSS, NDLEA, Customs, and Quarantine,” Keyamo said. “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.”

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The Federal Government recently approved measures aimed at curbing harassment faced by travellers with various agencies stationed at airports. Keyamo explained that the aim is not to remove these agencies but to streamline how they perform their duties.

“Nobody expects to go through an airport without security checks.

“However, the complaints we have consistently received from Nigerians have been complaints bordering on extortion, corruption, and perhaps even the very tardy process of these security checks,” he added.

Keyamo also disclosed that the ministry has dismantled the joint inspection table at airports, which often causes congestion. Instead, agencies will work with aviation security at the screening machine to eliminate repetitive searches.

He added, “So you can then observe all the bags passing through the machine jointly, without harassing anybody,” Keyamo said.

“That is why the machines are there in the first place. You, NDLEA, customs, if you notice anything like drugs inside or suspicious package, pull the person aside, take the person away into your private screening room, and do your further searches there.”

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