Why Lagos International Airport Roof was Leaking—FAAN

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has reacted to video making the rounds on social media on a leaking roof at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos.

A statement signed yesterday by the Acting General Manager in charge of Corporate Affairs at FAAN, Mrs Henrietta Yakubu, explained that “the leaking roof was a result of the on-going works at the MMIA, Lagos.”

She described insinuations that leak was as a result of the deplorable condition of facilities at the airport as totally untrue.

The FAAN spokesperson said the “malicious” video clip was “targeted to tarnish the authority’s hard earned reputation,” stressing that, “this defect did not affect operations in any way or at any time at the terminal” and assured “passengers, airport users and the general public of her commitment to a safe, secure and improved facilitation at the nation’s airports.”

Mrs Yakubu noted that the upgrade at the airport was as a result of the recent Executive Order issued by the Presidency aimed at ‘Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria.’

She said FAAN was doing everything possible to improve the quality of her services in line with the order.

“Management in compliance with government policies has since initiated practical steps to improve on safety and security architecture of the nation’s premier airport and also improve comfort and passengers experience.

“Consequently, upgrade of facilities is on-going in different areas at the International Terminal building of MMIA Lagos and as a result we are experiencing challenges as we have to keep up with our core operations going on while the upgrade continues.

“Sequel to this on-going works, we recently experienced some leakages from the roof at the ‘D Wing’ of the Terminal of Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, owing to a heavy rain accompanied by wind storm.

“This is directly connected to the civil engineering works going on at the roof top at that location, which temporarily interrupted our engineers who are replacing the old roof members with new ones at that instance.

“It was practically impossible to work at that location due to its altitude and slipperiness while the rains lasted, but work immediately resumed after the rain subsided, and the integrity of roof was restored,” Mrs Yakubu said in the statement.