The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo has disclosed that all the international airlines that were operating at the old and burnt terminal will be relocated to the Temporary Terminal close to the international Terminal 2, Murtala Muhammed Airport(MMA), Lagos.
He disclosed this today when he visited the scene of the fire incident at the burnt terminal for the on the spot assessment of the fire and extent of damage.
The Minister who was accompanied by the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAA),Mrs. Olubunmi Kuku, the Director of Public Affairs , Consumer Protection, Henry Agbebire and other FAAN Directors, said he is in Lagos for the on the spot assessment of the inferno that saw six person’s injured and equipment damaged.
Keyamo hinted that though the Federal Government has plans to rpull.down. the old terminal but that fire incident has made it necessary for the terminal to be speedily rebuilt.
He also stated that prior to the fire incident he had planns in the next two weeks to tour the airport with journalists to see things for himself but unfortunately, the fire incident happened.
According to him, “Certain persons that also needed to leave the old building for us to start work on the old building. So let me assure Nigerians that even before this fire, if you look behind, we had already made temporary arrangement to move most of the airlines, most of the entities in that space to the temporary place provided by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation . What this has just done is to hasten our move away from the building.,”
“The building was about to be pulled down anyway and totally rehabilitated. However, a lot of our equipments were damaged. Where we went up to at that time, you saw that is just a tip of the iceberg,” he said.
At the Temporary Terminal which the international airlines will be relocated to, check -in facilities such as screening machines, conveyor belts were seen waiting to be deployed.
On.what may the cause of the fire, he said, ” I cannot guess. At my level as a Minister, I cannot begin to speculate and get involved in conspiracy theories. But we should just have to do what we have to do now.
“Because what we are hearing from other sources, they are saying probably there was an inverter installed somewhere. So, I don’t know. That is what the feelers we are getting.”
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