By Joel Okwara
Travellers have been reassured by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo (SAN), that touts will be eliminated from Nigeria’s airports.
The minister pointed out that the nation is greatly embarrassed in front of its guests, since there are two groups of touts at the international airports.
He noted that some touts operate within airports while others are outside, with the former more hazardous and would need the assistance of armed security personnel to leave, while the latter are an embarrassment to the country because they disregard their uniforms.
Keyamo, during the Ministerial Sectoral Press Briefings in Abuja, ahead of the first anniversary of President Bola Tinubu’s administration on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, said that, “There are two types of touts at the airports: the official touts and non-official touts. That’s the truth.”
“You meet touts outside and inside the airport, you meet touts in uniforms, who dip hands into bags (and), ask for money,” he said.
“In many cases, we’ve seen disgraceful videos on social media. Although this is not under us, it’s just our environment but we’ve spoken to the Interior (Minister) and the National Security Adviser (NSA) and we’re working jointly on that.
“We may have to present a joint memo very soon, to try and reduce the human contact at the airports. All of those agencies should be behind glass doors somewhere.
“They cannot all be seen embarrassing our country. We’re addressing that problem and very soon, we’re going to come with a holistic solution.”
Keyamo added: “For the touts outside, we are asking for back-up because FAAN (Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria’s personnel), they don’t carry arms. Some of these boys (touts outside) are armed.
“So, we’re trying to call for help from normal security agencies, to see how they can cooperate with us to purge them out of the airports.”
