May day to hold amid tight security •Vehicles to park 200 metres away, bags not allowed

Against the growing security risk in the country, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), on Monday, said the May Day celebration, scheduled to hold on Thursday, will be held amid tight security.

While lamenting the lingering insecurity situation in the country, as well as rising level of poverty, the congress warned those attending not to carry any bags, while vehicles should be parked, at least, 200 meters away from the Eagles Square, venue of the programme.

The union said this year’s event is coming at a time when the country was under attack from insurgents, while also urging the government to take measures to end the siege.

Addressing a pre-May Day press conference in Abuja, at the Labour House, chairman of the 2014 May Day celebration and NLC vice president, Lucy Offiong, gave the theme for this year’s event as: “Building enduring peace and unity: Panacea for sustainable national development.”

She said President Goodluck Jonathan, members of the cabinet, as well as the Senate President and members of the Diplomatic community are expected to grace the occasion.

“We intend to use this occasion to recommit the labour movement in Nigeria to our collective desire for peace and unity, without which our search for sustainable development will remain elusive.

“Also we hope to use the May Day to reiterate our position that there is an intrinsic link between prevailing insecurity and poverty, which has been engendered by corruption, mismanagement of the economy by rapacious greed of the ruling class who have continued to churn out policies in the interest of capital to the detriments of the interest of the working people and other poor Nigerians,” she said.

Offiong stressed the need to recognise the significance of shared prosperity as a basis for enduring peace and sustainable national development.

“Everyone must feel obliged to render any kind of assistance to security security agencies that will lead to the apprehension of those responsible for these attacks by monitoring our neighborhoods at home, at work and even the roads”

The NLC also called on security agencies to do all they could to ensure the schoolgirls abducted by insurgents in Chibok, Borno State, were rescued and returned to their parents.

FG tightens security at international airports
IN view of the ongoing security threats across the country, President Goodluck Jonathan, on Monday, read riot acts to government officials, including foreign dignitaries and officials of multi-lateral institutions to henceforth submit themselves to immigration officers for screening and clearance at the international airports.

The new security measures, which take, effect from May 1, will be rolled out at Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano and Enugu airports.

The presidential committee on airport security set up by President Jonathan in 2013, led by Professor Sylvester Monye, dropped the hint after inspecting the Murtala Muhammed Airport, on Monday.

The new airport security measures were rolled out by government to tighten security around the international airports in the country.

Professor Monye, who is also the Special Adviser to the President on Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, said the new security arrangement at the airports had become imperative, because of the prevailing security situation in the country.

Monye said from May 1, no protocol officer/aide would be allowed into the arrival/baggage halls of the five international airports in the country.

According to him, the old practice where government protocol officials, aides of dignitaries, protocol officers of private companies, unauthorised uniformed and un-uniformed military and security officials moved unhindered in restricted areas around the airport terminal would no longer be tolerated.

He said the unwholesome milling around of such personnel in the immigration and customs areas at the airport was now a threat to national security.

The new directive, Monye said, was issued in view of recent threat to national security, even as he said the government would implement the new security measures without respect for anybody.

Monye said all security agencies at the airports had been mobilised to arrest any violator.

The committee has representatives from Nigeria Police, office of the National Security Adviser, Nigerian Army, Nigerian Air force, Nigerian Customs Service, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Department of State Security Services, Nigerian Immigration Service, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC).

He said government was working on a single platform to facilitate the exchange of information sharing for passenger profiling and check-in, for the purpose of tracking persons on the watch list.

Part of the strategies to be used was the re-calibration of operational equipment at the airports to facilitate screening of passenger luggage without physical examination of the baggage.

The presidential aide said the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, had already issued circulars to respective stakeholders on the implementation of the directive, even as airlines had been notified as well.

Culled: www.tribune.com.ng