In its determined effort to check regular infiltration and assault of border communities by insurgents, the Federal Government has directed the Ministry of Interior to commence twenty-four hour air surveillance patrol as part of several measures introduced to halt Boko Haram attacks.
The air surveillance will first commence in the North Eastern part of the country where helicopters and other aerial observation gear appropriate to the peculiar terrain of the region would be deployed to monitor movements in and out of the border areas prone to attacks by insurgents.
Interior Minister, Comrade Patrick Abba Moro, told a delegation of DANA Airline officials, led by Managing Director, Mark Snoxell Dornier who visited his office in Abuja on Tuesday that the air watch would be commenced immediately but he did not say whether the Nigerian Air Force will be involved in the air patrol.
Abba Moro, however, disclosed that the air patrol became necessary to enable the Federal Government regain control of the country’s borders particularly in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states and check the menace and illegal activities of insurgents in the region.
The minister remarked that most of the perpetrators of mayhem along the country’s borders were illegal immigrants who do not wish the country well and prefer to take advantage of its porous borders to commit every type of atrocity within the nation’s territories.
Moro said: “This visit has been long in waiting, especially against the backdrop that I have paid a similar visit to your organisation almost immediately I assume office as the Minister of Interior.
“I felt then and I still feel now that air border surveillance is a very critical component of the nation’s overall desire to take proper control of our borders. As you are aware, we have a serious internal security problem now. As you are equally aware, some of the perpetrators of the mayhem in the country have been identified as foreigners who come in illegally through our borders.
“You are equally aware that our borders, especially in the northern part, are very porous. So, the four methods that we are developing to control our borders are the use of vehicular border patrol, the construction of border plazas, the deployment of high technology equipment that survey distances and of course, the use of air patrol that we are talking about.”
“Since my visit to your office and the inspection of our facilities, we have taken concrete steps to see how we can resuscitate our air border patrol. I have to set-up a committee to examine our existing preparedness to undertake border patrol against the backdrop of existing aircrafts. There are some that are serviceable and some that are not serviceable, and the report has been submitted.”
Leader of the delegation, Mark Snoxell Dornier, remarked that DANA Airline would readily partner with the Ministry of Interior in providing efficient and reliable technical support as well as training for immigration personnel to enhance their capability in border surveillance techniques.
Dornier assured the minister that DANA Airline currently has two aircraft capable of rendering such service.
He added that the age of an aircraft has nothing to do with its efficiency, so long as the plane undergoes routine maintenance
Source: Daily Newswatch
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