House Committee tasks FAAN, NCAA on incessant power outage at Lagos airport

The House of Representatives Committee on Aviation headed by Honourable Nnolim Nnaji, has urged the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to apply all necessary measures to avert a recurrence of the type of power outage experienced at the D finger arrival of the international wing of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, last week.

The D finger arrival was thrown into darkness for over 15 minutes on the night of Friday, April 1, 2022 at about 11:15 pm at the time the disembarked Air France passengers were undergoing facilitations.

Nnaji, in his opening remarks at the meeting with the FAAN management and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), stressed that the committee had to invite the two organisations for explanations on the incident following a disturbing video that went viral following the incident.

The committee chairman said the parliament was not happy with the development adding that a prime airport like the Lagos International Airport ought to have standby generators whenever the public power source switched off.

Speaking, the Managing Director of FAAN, Captain Rabiu Yadudu, disclosed that the heavy rain which fell that night affected the underground cables that supply power to the affected finger.

Yadudu further disclosed that the international terminal of the Murtala Mohammed Airport has six 4.8 KVA generators serving as alternative power sources to the terminal and that they usually switch on automatically within five seconds whenever there was disruption from the national grid.

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He also stated that the problem lasted for only 15 minutes before the light was restored, adding that it was blown out of proportion through the social media network.

The Managing Director equally disclosed that the greatest challenge facing the authority was that some of the underground cables had been damaged and needed total replacements because they were laid over 40 years ago.

Also speaking in the same vein, the Director-General of the NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu, said since the terminal was built in 1978, no major renovation had been carried out on it.

He noted that what the terminal required was total remodelling and rewiring of the cables as the only way of solving the problems which, according to him, had been a recurring issue.

Hon. Nnaji however maintained that FAAN and the NCAA should meet and come up with suggestions on how to address the problem permanently so as to avoid future embarrassment of the type of what happened on April 1.