February 27, (THEWILL) — The honourable members of the National Assembly, comprising both the Senate Committee on Aviation and the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, on Thursday, embarked on an on-the-spot assessment of the fire incident that affected the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, on Monday.
Speaking after the inspection of the fire outbreak on Thursday, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation, Abdulfatai Buhari, said that despite the incident, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and other agencies lived up to expectations.
Since the investigation into the fire incident is still ongoing, Senator Buhari refrained from speaking about any form of sabotage in order not to jeopardise the process.
Commending FAAN, he said, “They were able to turn things around; they diverted flights, one to Malabo, Emirates to Accra. Even Emirates and Lufthansa still landed here around past 12:00 midnight. That shows the response was high, and as a result, we are very happy.
According to the Senator, “the takeaway from the incident is that the investigation is still ongoing and we don’t want to pre-empt them, and that’s why we are not talking about sabotage or anything right now.
“We will allow them to do their internal investigations, and there is also security who will eventually tell us what happened exactly. We can’t give a report in a situation where the investigation is still ongoing.”
Corroborating Buhari, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, Abdullahi Garba, said, “Just like my senior colleague just said, investigation is ongoing, and we will wait for the same before anything can be done on this development. For the MD, she has done very well because within just three hours, she was able to achieve stability; that is a very good one.”
The airport community was thrown into confusion after a fire engulfed parts of the fourth and fifth floors of Terminal One at MMIA in Lagos, triggering an emergency response and a temporary disruption to flight operations.
Anthony Awunor, is a business correspondent who holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics (UNILAG). He is also an alumnus of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria Kaduna State. He lives in Lagos.
