On the mangled body discovered at the Lagos airport

Published by

3 years ago

Last week, the country’s aviation sector was enmeshed in another unpleasant news of how a mangled corpse of a yet-to-be indentified individual was found at the international airport runway 18 right of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.

According to a statement issued to confirm the development by the spokesperson of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mrs Faithful Hope Ivbaze, the corpse, which was in a bad shape, was first discovered by “a motorised cleaner, that was cleared to carry out a derruberisation and sweeping of the runway at about 0106hours, and escalated the situation to relevant departments.”

While the development is not peculiar to Nigeria as similar incidents happen regularly in other airports around the world, the incident of last week, though not the first of its kind at the Lagos airport, however, calls for deep critical investigation.

The need for the incident to be thoroughly looked into is not far from the situation of insecurity the country is presently grappling with, which has not exempted its airports in view of the recent happenings.

Looking at the way the unidentified individual dressed before he met his waterloo, it may not be out of point to suspect he had an ulterior motive for being at such a restricted area of the airport at that particular time.

IN CASE YOU MISSED THESE FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

There is therefore, the need for the relevant aviation authorities alongside security bodies to investigate how the individual was able to access such a restricted place before he was brought down.

Could it be the case of somebody trying to stowaway, could it be that the fellow even smuggled his way into an aircraft that flew into the Lagos airport from another country or could it be someone who was on an evil mission?

All these require adequate investigations and intelligence gatherings with a view to further beefing up security around the airports.

Though almost a week after the incident occurred, the airport authorities are yet to intimate the public with any information on the identity of the individual, the development has obviously pointed to the fact that there is a lacuna in the security network of not only the Lagos airport but others across the country.

Among many questions calling for answers include; how the fellow was able to access a sterile part of the airport without being noticed as an intruder or which flight landed around the time the corpse was discovered in case the dead individual was a stowaway.

All these and many other probabilities should be looked into before jumping to conclusion which may later boomerang.

Obviously, because all is not well with security apparatuses around the airports in view of the criminal activities being perpetrated by terrorists and bandits in recent times, there is an urgent need for the airport authorities not to treat the incident of the mangled body like other previous airport incursions.

As the relevant authorities continue to investigate the latest incident, searchlight should also be beamed at all airport workers to frustrate any insider threats that may be collaborating with dangerous outsiders.

Above all, there is the need for the authorities to come out with their findings whenever similar incidents occur as a way of restoring confidence in the travelling public.

This appeal becomes necessary in view of the various investigations previously carried out with the reports swept under the carpet.