TYe National Assembly (NASS) on Thursday commended the management of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria FAAN) and other agencies for their abilities to stabilise and restore operations at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos within three hours after a fire incident that gutted Terminal One of the airport on Monday.
The commendations were given by the Chairman Senate Aviation committee Senator Abdulfatai Buhari and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Honourable Abdullahi Garba who led members of their committees on a joint inspection tour of the section of the airport terminal affected by the inferno.
Speaking during the short media briefing, Chairman Senate Committee on Aviation, Senator Abdulfatai Buhari on behalf of his colleagues in the red chamber, said members of his committee were impressed by the prompt reactions of the FAAN and other responders to curtain the fire without recording any fatality.
“When this happened two days ago, we resolved to come here and do an on-the-spot assessment today because yesterday was for budget defence. That is why we are here from both chambers. Now we are here and we thank God that there was no loss of life, which is the most important thing, and we are happy that despite the incident FAAN and other agencies lived up to expectations. They were able to turn things around, the diverted flights, one to Malabo, Emirates to Accra. Even Emirates and Lufthansa still landed here around past 12:00 midnight. That shows that the response was high and, as a result, we are very happy.
Senator Buhari however the committee had refrianed from making further comment on the inferno the inferno until after the report of investigations into the incident is brought before it.
“”The takeaway from here is that 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 investigation is still ongoing.
Speaking in the same vein, Chairman of House Committee on Aviation House of Representatives, Hon Abdullahi Garba who also praised the management of FAAN for the well coordinated efforts at quenching the fire without loss of any life, assured that the house will responde appropriately after the reports on investigation into the fire incident are submitted
“Just like my senior colleague just said, investigation is ongoing and we will wait for the same before anything could 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 onone.
Speaking earlier, Chairman Board of management of FAAN, Senator Umar Ganduje after leading the board on inspection tour of the burnt section of the terminal, commended the management of FAAN for a job well done at stabilising the situation within three hours after the fire incident.
“There’s no doubt when we heard about the fire outbreak at the International Airport here in Lagos, it was an issue of great concern, especially the board members who believe our core value of FAAN is safety. And this really affected the safety of the airport, including the safety of the employees, the safety of passengers, the safety of equipment and the safety of many other infrastructural facilities.
“We decided to be here in order to see for ourselves, because we say seeing is believing. We have seen the damage that occurred, but at the same time we have to congratulate the Managing Director and her management team, especially the firefighters, over 150 of them, who were around until the fire was completely quenched. This is an unfortunate situation. ” Ganduje said
He said though the board is yet to get the report of investigations into the inferno, management of FAAN led by Mrs Olubunmi Kuku deserves accolades for promptly restored operations three minutes after the fire incident.
“We have not got the report yet. The Managing Director 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’s unfortunate,” the former National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) said.
Ganduje also commended the media for their timely and accurate information given to members of the public on the fire incident
“We have to thank everybody. We have to thank the press themselves, because they informed Nigerians that there was a fire outbreak, and we are happy also they informed Nigerians that the fire outbreak was controlled, ” he said.
The former Governor of Kano State who also siezed the opportunity of the visit to tour ongoing remodelling project at the airport, said: “Also, we seized the opportunity to see the remodelling of the International Airport, which the MD took us around, and the work is going on.”
