The management of Skyway Aviation handling Company Limited (SAHCOL) has reaffirmed the Company’s commitment to ensure safety of staff and clients’ items in discharging their duties.
Mr. Olu Owolabi, managing director, SAHCOL declared the Management’s recommitment while declaring open a-week long Safety Week organised by the Company in Lagos.
He said that SAHCOL is committed to be becoming an example in aviation handing safety in the country and Africa in general, adding that several steps have been taken by the management to ensure staff welfare are not treated with levity.
He maintained that safety goals of the Company have been showcased in several aspects of its operations which informed the unalloyed allegiance shown by several airlines it handles.
“We want to reassure our clients that safety is enshrined in our procedure and we follow them to the later. Some issues like pilfering cannot be found among our staff whose welfare is paramount to the management of SAHCOL”.
The MD said that the SAHCOL has succeeded in inculcating on the minds of the workers that they are ‘Change Agents’ in aviation handling sub-sector.
“It is when the workers are safe that we can say the Company is progressive. It is an all-team expectation that safety is maintained in discharging our duties. That is why we mapped out this week to remind ourselves the need to keep to safety tips. We will never relent in proving to the industry that we can become the safest aviation handling company in West Africa,” he added.
In a paper titled: “Security Threats in Aviation Industry and the Role of Ground Handling Agents,” Mr Salau Waheed, Commissioner of Police, Airport Command, admonished the Company not to relent in ensuring adequate protection of its customers’ cargo from pilfering and to raise alarm when traitors are detected.
“They are also required not to be party to insiders collusion whereby some light/sensitive goods develop ‘wings’ and disappear. In other words, the Police and other security agencies are supposed to synergize with SAHCOL for effective handling and efficient delivery of cargo through clearing agents to the owners of the goods and security of these goods. This will ultimately impact positively on the National economy in its revenue earnings,” he emphasized.
The Commissioner who was represented by Mr. Chuks Enwonwu, assistant commissioner of Police (Operations), Area “B”, Lagos, added that due to the sensitivity of the airports, viz-a-viz the general security situation in the country, the challenges are quite high for all the security agencies working in the Airport. “They are stretched to the limits by influx of travelers utilizing the limited facilities at the airports.
“It will be recalled that the MMIA, Ikeja, for instance, was built in 1977 and only benefited forst expansion between 2012 and 2013 due to the on-going airport transformation. Yet the travelling public would have increased by over 100% over the years,” the CP said.
He noted that naturally the airports are expected to have increase in miscreants, touts, pickpockets and milling grounds in pretence to be service providers.
“Worst case scenario is the recent Boko Haram attacks ravaging operatives that have so far saved the airports. Therefore, all hands must be on deck, both SAHCOL and security agencies, to be extra vigilant as stakeholders in the airport, to checkmate criminality, touting, miscreants, etc., from SAHCOL warehouses,” he advised.