The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority and Greater Washington Capital Limited, a cargo consolidation organisation, have organised a special programme to train cargo handlers and agents on how to identify dangerous cargoes.
Dangerous cargoes refer to explosive devices, arms and ammunition and flammable items, among others.
The one-day seminar, prepared by Greater Washington, was carried out in the premises of Aero Contractors.
The programme bothers on the sensitivity of the operations of cargo handlers and the need for the safety and security of passengers aboard aircraft.
The training also followed the global trend on the need to safeguard air travellers from the activities of terrorists.
Cargo handlers working at the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, were present at the event.
Senior officials of the NCAA and the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency were also present at the seminar.
The Head, Regional Business, Greater Washington, Mr. Agbogban Bright, said training cargo handlers and agents would not only create awareness on what constituted dangerous goods but also help to forestall a situation where agents would ignorantly attempt to ship dangerous goods.
He said the training would also help Nigeria to continually adhere to the safety standards of the International Civil Aviation Organisation and International Air Transport Association.
He noted that failure to comply with the standards of ICAO and IATA could attract sanctions.
He said, “In recent times, we’ve had series of agents ignorantly attempting to ship items that constitute dangerous goods. Because of the process we put in place, we’ve had to identify these items and because they are recurring, we need to run a seminar like this that will create an awareness in our agents as to what constitute dangerous goods, their response as security to the shippers based on ICAO and IATA regulations as well as the penalty of such.”
An official of Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Mr. Nasir Kotangora, informed the participants to ensure they carried out a thorough check on their shipment, notwithstanding the number of years an importer or exporter had been shipping goods with them.
He charged them to beware of drug peddlers and barons who employed various methods to conceal their nefarious activities and warned against conniving with them.
An aviation safety inspector at NCAA, Mr. Austin Eboigbe, noted that training was a requirement by the regulatory body.
According to him, dangerous goods also include fireworks, gas cooker, matches, lighter, magnets and body spray among others.