The board chairman of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Abdullahi Ganduje, has said the fire outbreak at the Old Terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos, also known as Terminal I, could affect President Bola Tinubu’s reforms in the aviation sector.
While lamenting what he described as the destruction of sensitive equipment in the inferno, the former Kano State governor expressed hope that stakeholders would rise to salvage the situation.
Ganduje spoke in Lagos, Thursday, after inspecting the scene of the incident and the temporary terminal constructed for airlines and service providers previously operating from the old terminal.
He said: “This is an unfortunate situation. We have not got the report yet. The Managing Director of FAAN, Olubunmi Kuku, is working on that. But what we could say is that this is really affecting the aviation reform by President Bola Tinubu, but equally the same, the staff are equal to the task.
“From what we have seen, the firefighters did a lot of work. We have seen that a lot of very sensitive equipment has been destroyed, but no death was recorded anyway. I think the situation is under control, but it is unfortunate.”
On the constructed temporary terminal, he said: “I thought I was in one of the well-developed foreign international airports, but I am happy to see that I am in Nigeria and in Lagos. The quality of work is beautiful, and all the equipment is being fixed now. I think it is going to be a big success with the remodeling of the aviation reform.”
Meanwhile, after conducting a separate inspection exercise, Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation, Abdulfatai Buhari, said given that investigation into the cause of the fire was still ongoing, there was no need to pre-empt the outcome.
Buhari said: “We will allow them to do their internal investigations, and there are also security personnel who will eventually tell us what happened exactly. We can’t give a report in a situation where investigation is still ongoing.
“We are happy that despite the incident, FAAN and other agencies lived up to expectations. They were able to turn things around. Although flights were diverted to Malabo, Emirates to Accra, Emirates and Lufthansa still landed here around past 12:00 midnight. That shows that the response was high, we are very happy.”
