Months after the foremost elements of the Instrument Touchdown System (ILS) put in at runway 18/36 proper of the worldwide wing of the Murtala Muhammad Airport (MMA), Lagos, was carted away, the suspects are but to be revealed.
Info gathered by the Nigerian Tribune indicated that regardless of the conclusion of the investigations carried out by the committee arrange by the everlasting secretary of the ministry of aviation, Dr Emmanuel Meribole, the findings by the committee and the identities of the cable thieves have been but to be made public.
The committee that carried out an investigation into the stealing had submitted its findings to the quick previous Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mr Kabir Mohammed, with none motion taken.
The runway cable lights have been found to have been stolen on July 10, 2023 and 7 individuals, majorly the Aviation Safety (AVSEC) personnel on responsibility on the mentioned day have been suspended.
It was learnt that those that carted away the lighting programs carried out the dastardly act with the help of some workers of the company who used the lacuna created by the closure of the airport runway for over three months by FAAN.
Although the then FAAN administration had changed virtually 90 % of the stolen amenities, nothing had been mentioned concerning the investigations.
In response to a supply: “We’re virtually by way of with the substitute of the runway lights. As it’s, we’re about 98 % gone. The report of the investigative panel was prepared and submitted to the previous administration of FAAN. I believe the administration acted on it, however the report was not simply made public.”
One other stakeholder who spoke below anonymity referred to as for stricter safety measures on the delicate areas to forestall a recurrence, including that, “For me, it doesn’t communicate nicely of us. Additionally, it has a security and safety problem. That specific runway is the longest and essentially the most prominently used for worldwide airways and the act of vandalism has obstructed its use. So, operators are compelled to make use of the home runway.
“When you find yourself subjected to just one runway, we pray we don’t have incursion or another incident that may now warrant the closure of the one runway. Additionally, for FAAN, so far as I’m involved, whosoever is answerable for the conduct of the investigation ought to make the result public.
“FAAN wants to make sure that such an incidence doesn’t occur once more. Aviation safety is paramount to the event of the trade and now that new heads are coming in to pilot the affairs of the sector, I do hope they may check out that and devise a manner of stopping future incidence.”
For the Common Secretary, Aviation Spherical Desk (ART), Mr Olumide Ohunayo, the Lagos airport is just too busy and delicate to permit the runway lights problem to linger on for therefore lengthy with out answer.
Lamenting how the investigation into the disappearance of the cable lights was unnecessarily delayed by FAAN, many months after the incident was uncovered, Ohunayo cautioned that the Lagos airport is just too vital to be left with out an alternate runway, stressing that the airways spend extra to taxi from the home runway to the worldwide terminal.
“As they proceed with their investigation, which is overtly delayed, I believe they need to start to place issues in place to stop recurrence and in addition punish these whose responsibility was supposed to make sure that it didn’t occur within the first place.
“We’re nonetheless ready for them to supply the Closed Circuit Tv (CCTV) digicam footage. I additionally assume there may be the necessity to improve patrol, there’s a want to make sure that there may be additional safety on the airside,” he mentioned.
“Lagos airport is a excessive income one for FAAN and that ought to have been a precedence for FAAN to put in the instrument. If the worldwide airways now begin to taxi to the worldwide runway from the native, that may add to the price of their operations and will probably be handed to the passengers.
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