The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has said that
yellow taxis and others interested in operating at the Murtala Muhammed
Airport (MMA), Lagos, will not be allowed to do unless they register
with the agency.
The agency spoke in an interview with Daily Independent through the
General Manager, Corporate Communications, FAAN, Mr Yakubu Dati, why
reacting to allegation that the agency has bared yellow taxis and other
unregistered taxis from operating at the airport.
Dati said he was not aware of the development, adding that there are
bus and cab operators known as Limousine drivers, who have registered
with FAAN to operate at the airport.
Airport, he said is a restricted environment where there are
specialised people offering services and that these people are given
trainings to be able to operate at the airport.
According to him, “I am not aware of that such thing happened.
Furthermore airport is an environment where you have specialised people
offering certain services and paid for such services. We also have the
what we call the Limousine drivers and taxis, who are registered with
FAAN at the airport who provide such service because of the regulated
and specialised environment which the airport is ,most of them also have
some basic training in terms of courtesy, security and we also under
take integrity test as well”.
Dati posited that it is because those operators operating at the
airport are registered and also given some trainings on how to operate
at the airport that often times bags left in taxis are returned to the
owners.
He said that the day the authority start given access to unregistered
yellow taxis and others to operate at Lagos airport, it would be
difficult to trace these taxis and drivers in the event of any missing
luggage or bag on board these taxis.
The General Manager stated that when there are infractions as it
concerns missing passengers’ bags on board unregistered yellow taxis, it
would affect not only the image of the airport but also the image of
FAAN.
According to him, “That is why you have stories of passengers who
left something in their bags and the bags and the content being returned
to them because these drivers are registered to operate within the
airport environment. You will agree with me that if somebody who did not
register comes into the airport to operate and there are infractions it
dents the image of the drivers who operate at the airport and the
authority.
So most times we encourage taxis that want to operate at the
airport to register with FAAN so they would go through due diligent and
they would be registered to operate within the airport environment”.
He continued, “Until you are registered with FAAN, you cannot operate
within the airport environment. Our laws does not allow you to come and
operate where others have registered and paid to provide the service
and now you have come to operate to without being registered”.
Dati recalled that sometimes in the past there cases where non
registered taxi operators come into the airport with the pretence of
dropping passengers but that they eventually ended up picking up
passengers, adding that most of the registered airport taxis are always
at alert to ensure that when such things happen they immediately accost
such taxi driver.
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