Night flights to Lagos threatened after thieves steal runway lights at domestic terminal

FLIGHT landings at the domestic wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos are now under threat after thieves made away with recently-installed airfield lighting systems designed to assisting night time flights.

Apparently, those who carted away the lighting systems took advantage of the closure of the runway for over three months. However, it is believed that some unscrupulous Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (Faan) workers connived with outsiders to steal the airport lighting equipment.

One airport source said: “The criminals 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 and a lot of Faan officials have been suspended."

Among those suspended are some heads of relevant departments  on the directives of the permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Aviation, Dr Emmanuel Meribole. According to the source, the regular incursion and stealing of safety components at the airports are carried out by a syndicate, consisting of some workers of the agencies, who have access to the restricted areas and accomplices from outside.

One senior Faan official said the agency’s managing director, Kabir Yusuf, was displeased with the development. He stated that Mr Yusuf has also ordered the suspension of security personnel who were in charge of guarding critical airport facilities.

Group Captain John Ojikutu, the former military commandant of the airport, said: “This is not new and I wish the Faan management could go back to 1990 when similar things happened in the airport. I was convinced that it was an insider job, so what did I do? I positioned soldiers on the runways and ensured that no Faan maintenance staff went near them for anything without my approval, otherwise, it was shoot at first sight.

"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.”

Faan spokesman Yakubu Funtua, 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 on our staff and I don’t think there is any 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."

For 15 years, the Lagos airport's domestic runway was shut down to night operations due to the absence of airfield lighting. Domestic airlines were forced to use the runway at the international airport but last November new equipment was installed on the 2.7km long runway.