Shameful Disappearance of Lagos Airport  Runway Light

The news that unknown persons stole the recently reinstalled airfield lighting systems at the domestic runway 18/36L of the Murtala Muhammed Airport was a shame of monumental proportion to Nigeria.

The stolen equipment, which aids aircraft to take off and land at the domestic airport at night, was installed on the 2.7 kilometres long runway last November.

For 15 years, the Lagos Airport domestic runway 18L was shut down to night operations due to the absence of airfield lighting. Domestic airlines were forced to use runway 19 at the international airport, which consumes more aviation fuel because of the longer distance.

It was gathered that the disappearance of the approach lighting systems had raised security concerns in Nigeria’s busiest airports. According to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity, those who carted away the lighting systems took advantage of the closure of the runway for over three months.

Like other thefts at the airport where nothing was done to apprehend the culprits, investigations are said to have commenced to unravel those responsible for the missing safety equipment.

On many occasions, the attention of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) was drawn to some security lapses at the airport, for which nothing was done.

One of such is curbing the activities of commercial motorcyclists at the airport.

A few years ago, in a bid to curb robbery and other criminal activities at the airport Lagos, the Airport Command of the Nigeria Police Force, banned the operators, popularly known as ‘okada,’ from operating within the vicinity of the MMA Lagos.

Despite this order, there is no part of the airport where these okada operators do not operate currently. 

Even FAAN, which is in charge of managing the airports in the country is turning a blind eye to the activities of these commercial motorcycle operators, pretending not to see them until there is a major security breach before they will begin to apportion blame.