The freshly replaced airfield lighting systems at the domestic runway 18/36L of Murtala Muhammad Airport are purportedly gone.
The PUNCH learned that the security situation at Nigeria’s largest airports has deteriorated due to the removal of the approach lighting systems.
A source who requested anonymity said those who removed the lighting systems profited from the runway being closed for more than three months.
According to the report, several FAAN employees colluded with outsiders to steal the airport lighting equipment.
“The criminal took advantage of the closure to commit the crime. I cannot give the actual worth of the theft, but almost all the lighting was removed. The permanent secretary came around to see for himself the huge damage done. A lot of FAAN officials have been suspended,” the source confirmed.
According to information obtained by The PUNCH, Dr. Emmanuel Meribole, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Aviation, ordered the suspension of some FAAN department heads due to missing lighting equipment.
The insider also said that inquiries had started in order to identify people in charge of the missing safety equipment.
The insider claims that a syndicate made up of some agency employees with access to the restricted areas and collaborators from the outside often breaches airport security and steals safety components.
A senior FAAN employee who did not want his name published claimed that Mr. Kabir Yusuf, the agency’s managing director, was unhappy with the development.
The FAAN MD, according to him, also ordered the suspension of the security staff in charge of manning the most important airport facilities.
Reacting to the latest development, a former Military Commandant at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Group Capt. John Ojikutu (retd.), said, “This is not new at MMA. I wish the FAAN management could go back to 1990 when similar things happened in the airport. I was convinced that it was an ‘insiders threats’. What did I do? I positioned soldiers on the runways and ensured that no FAAN maintenance staff went near the runways for anything without my approval; otherwise, it was shoot at first sight. It stopped completely. Runway lightings were being stolen and my conclusion then was that runway lightings can only be useful for runways and not roads or houses.
“Those stolen were being sold to FAAN by the same workers. That is why I am not in support of the unions carrying the picketing of their employers to the airport’s security controlled areas.”
The Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, FAAN, Mr Yakubu Funtua, told The PUNCH stated that investigations had been launched and that the agency would do all within its powers to avoid a reoccurrence.
He said, “FAAN is doing all it can to get to the bottom of this. You are very aware that there are many agencies within the airport, including the different ones that are supposed to be taking care of security there. So, it would be unfair to put this (the theft) on our (members of) staff and I don’t think there is any FAAN (member of) staff that wants the agency to crash.
“Note that most of our revenue comes from Lagos. So, what kind of staff will ‘kill the goose that lays the egg?’ However, we can’t say exactly who did it, but we are doing all that we can to recover what is lost. We are going to recover it because we are going to find out those people who did it and then block all those loopholes.”
Due to a lack of airfield illumination, the domestic runway 18L at Lagos Airport was closed to night operations for 15 years.
Domestic aircraft were compelled to use runway 19 at the international airport, a longer route that uses more fuel.
The apparatus was built on the 2.7-kilometer runway in November and helps aircraft take off and land at the domestic airport during the night.