Nigeria performs excellently in ICAO’s audit

The team of auditors from the International Civil Aviation Organisation said Nigeria performed excellently well in the nine-day audit conducted on the nation’s aviation security system.

This was contained in a statement issued on Wednesday by Fan Ndubuoke, the General Manager of Public Affairs of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority in Lagos.

The statement reported the team leader, Steven Neu, who gave the report as saying the team was very impressed with the National Security Programme because there were very minimal open-items that needed to be closed.

Neu was quoted as saying: “Nigeria surpassed our expectations. We reviewed the 2008 audit before we commenced this exercise; but we discovered there have been massive improvements in the security systems at the airports.

“To Nigeria’s credit, all the minimal open-items were closed immediately. The audit focused on the eight critical elements.”

According to it, Nigeria is one of the first countries in the world to go through the USAP Continuous Monitoring Assessment Audit.

It commended the security agencies at the airports: the aviation security, Nigerian Police, Airport Command, the DSS, Port Health Services, the Air Force, the Nigerian Drug Law enforcement Agency and the Quarantine Services.

The statement said now that the USAP CMA activity had been completed, draft findings and recommendations would be provided to the regulatory authority.

It said: “After 60 days, ICAO will forward the USAP CMA audit report to Nigeria. In 30 days, Nigeria will submit its comments on the audit report if any.

“Within another 30 days, the country will submit to ICAO its Corrective Action Plan.”

The statement said that the Director-General of the NCAA, Captain Muhtar Usman, in his response thanked the ICAO auditors for a very thorough and transparent audit.

It said Usman expressed joy that Nigeria’s performance in the last audit exercise was higher than the preceding audit in 2008.

The statement said Usman assured ICAO that Nigeria would not rest on its oars but would continue to ensure that the nation’s air transport operations were secure and safe.

NAN.