Put measures in place to curb power outage at airports, Reps tell FAAN

By Chinelo Obogo

Chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, Nnolim Nnaji has urged the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN) to put necessary measures to avert a repeat of the power outage experienced at the D finger arrival of the international wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport, (MMIA), Ikeja Lagos least week.

The D finger arrival was thrown into darkness for over 15 minutes on the night of Friday, April 1, 2022 at about 11:15 pm at the time the disembarked Air France passengers were undergoing facilitations.

In his opening remarks at the meeting with the FAAN management and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in Abuja, Nnaji said that the committee had to invite the two organisations for explanations on the incident following a disturbing video that went viral at the weekend.

The committee chairman said the Parliament is not happy with the development, adding that a prime airport like the MMIA ought to have standby generators that are supposed to switch on automatically immediately the public power source goes off.

The Managing Director of FAAN, Captain Rabiu Yadudu disclosed that the problem was caused by the heavy rain which fell that night that affected the underground cables that supply power to the affected finger.

Captain Yadudu further disclosed that the international terminal of the Murtala Mohammed Airport has six 4.8 KVA generators serving as alternative power sources to the terminal and that they usually switch on automatically within five seconds whenever there is disruption from the national grid.

He also stated that the problem lasted for only fifteen minutes before the light was restored adding that it was blown out of proportion through the social media.

Rabiu also disclosed that the greatest challenge facing the authority is that some of the underground cables are damaged and need total replacements because they were laid over 40 years ago.
Also speaking in same vein, the Director-General of NCAA,Captain Musa Nuhu said since the terminal was built in1978 no major renovation had been carried on it.
He noted that what the terminal requires is total remodeling and rewiring of the cables as the only way of solving the problems which according to him had been a reoccurring issue.
Nnaji however maintained that FAAN and the NCAA should meet and come up with suggestions on how to address the problem permanently to avoid future embarrassment of the type of what happened on April first, 2022.