Nigeria installs body scanners at airport
Lagos international airport installs three full-body scanners at a cost of $300,000 each. Nigeria’s three other international airports — in the capital Abuja, the oil town of Port Harcourt, and the largest northern city, Kano — are also scheduled to be equipped with the scanners
Nigeria has installed two 3-D full body scanners at its largest airport to combat terrorism three months after a botched attempt by a young Nigerian to blow up an American jet. “We have installed two full body scanners at the Murtala Mohammed International airport in Lagos in response to the December 25 failed bid by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up a U.S. plane in mid-air,” Akin Olukunle, spokesman for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), told AFP.<[>Nigeria’s other international airports in the capital Abuja, the oil town of Port Harcourt, and the largest northern city, Kano, will also be equipped with the electronic scanners that are capable of detecting anything hidden on a human body.
Abdulmutallab, whose name was on a U.S. list of suspected al Qaeda activists, tried to blow up the Airbus A330 with 290 people on board with a device sewn into his underwear. The attempt was foiled when a passenger leapt on him as he struggled to detonate the explosives which had not been detected during a routine scan at Lagos and Amsterdam’s Schipol airports.
Because of his bid to bring down the plane, Nigeria is now on a U.S. list of fourteen countries for which special security has been ordered on all flights heading to the United States.
The foiled plot sparked global concern, triggering a series of ramped up security measures at airports around the world. Olukunle said the installation of the scanners — worth around $300,000 dollars each — was “in compliance with international standards and to fight international terrorism.”
