Murtala Muhammed airport is Nigeria’s busiest.
Nigeria, Lagos – July 12 ((Mediaage NG) – An airport authority spokesman Nigeria’s Muhammed Murtala Airport, Yakubu Funtua said thieves stole a lighting system for one of the runways at the country’s busiest airport. The system was installed eight months ago.
Though, it is yet unclear when the system was taken but, Mr. Funtua said investigation has begun to “arrest the criminals [and] recover what’s missing”.
But local media reported that airport workers were involved in the theft.
The ground lights were installed to end years of after-dusk restrictions on landing on that wing of the airport.
Domestic carriers were forced to divert to the international section and taxi about 4km (2.5 miles) back to the right terminal, which caused flight disruptions.
Mr Funtua while speaking with the BBC, said the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria will “block all loopholes to prevent [a] future occurrence”.
The criminals took advantage of the fact that the runway had been closed for months for maintenance to take the lighting system, an unnamed source told Nigeria’s Punch newspaper.
The source blamed a “syndicate” of workers at the airport along with “accomplices from outside” for a series of thefts