Man dies while stealing FAAN equipment at Lagos airport, agency boosts security

A middle aged man who attempted to steal electrical cables and other equipment inside the powerhouse of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has died from electric shock.

The man whose identity could not be ascertained found his way into the power generating building and had begun disconnecting the installations that supplies power to the Lagos airport before he met his waterloo.

Confirming the incident, Olubunmi Oluwaseun Kuku, the managing director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), on Monday said the agency is leaving no stone unturned towards ensuring that all gaps allowing unauthorised persons into the airports are blocked.

Kuku spoke at the commissioning of Special Forces that will man the Lagos airport, affirming that in the past, some people have crossed the perimeter fences of the airports and stole airfield lighting equipment, and some even harmed workers on site.

“I would say that there are two sides to this, that our environment is quite unique in the sense that we do have some security issues nationwide. We’ve been quite lucky within the airport environments that we haven’t had any of those major incidents,” she said.

“Across the airside you’ve seen where we have people who are either crossing our fence, or trying to steal our airfield lighting equipment, or potentially even harm some of individuals that we have on site. We had an incident, where an individual actually went into our power house and he got electrocuted.”

She said FAAN has looked forward to the unveiling of the security apparatus in the last six months, adding that there’s been conversation about funding, and the aviation security staff being armed.

According to her, there’s a lot of investment that has gone into this, from the armoury, to the training of the personnel, to getting the arms as well as the ammunition.

Addressing the newly commissioned security personnel, the FAAN MD said “what I want to say is that you have been specially selected to be part of this unit. This is a special unit. Hopefully, there won’t be any need to use your arms, but rather to leverage this as a deterrent.

“What is critical is that we want you to work very closely with the other security agencies at the airport. This is an environment that we want to keep safe and secure. You’ve probably seen a lot of the news around some of the illicit behaviours that are happening at the airports. There have also been all sorts of activities that we also need to put some pressure on.”

“But what I would say is, I’m happy to have you on board. I’m happy that within FAAN, we now have this select unit. And we can’t wait to see how you perform on your duties and your tasks.”