The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, SAN, has said the fire outbreak that affected the Murtala Mohammed International Terminal 1 destroyed weather reading equipment.

Mr Keyamo made the disclosure during the assessment of the affected terminal on Tuesday in Lagos.

The minister confirmed that several Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) equipment were destroyed by the fire.

Mr Keyamo said the building was  billed for rehabilitation, adding that it  was unfortunate that the fire happened when it did.

“The building was about to be pulled down anyway and totally rehabilitated. However, a lot of our equipment was damaged.

“Our NiMET office, where they read the weather, is totally gone. I am sure you saw most of the air traffic controllers who were trapped up there yesterday and had to be rescued by a crane.

“So, some of our equipment is damaged, but mostly, like I said, for the building itself, we were about to pull down the building anyway,” he said.

Mr Keyamo, however, expressed appreciation to God that no life was lost.

He said that work would start in earnest to clear the rubble, adding that the reconstruction would be hastened.

Speaking on how long the reconstruction would take, the minister said the construction company was already on site and work was ongoing.

“We have made temporary arrangements for air traffic control. For now, they are using a temporary tower; also, mobile towers are coming in today for us to resume normal flight activities.

“So, I want to assure the public that flight activities would not be disrupted in any way at all,” he said.

He also thanked President Bola Tinubu for the reconstruction of the airport.

“Now most of the equipment was obsolete. This is like a fifty-year-old building. There are older buildings, but because of constant maintenance, they still look good.

“The traffic, you know, overpowered the capacity of the building over time. So that is why the president made a decision that this gateway to Nigeria should be reconstructed,” he said.

Mr Keyamo thanked the responders and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria for promptly responding to managing the fire.

He urged the public to rely on relevant authorities and agencies for accurate updates.

He assured the international community that flight operations had resumed normally while repairs of what was damaged were ongoing alongside probe to determine cause of the fire. 

He also expresses optimism that the Lagos airport would be a proper hub to challenge other West African hubs and transit passengers through the airport without them having to get visas into Nigeria.

The old MMIA Terminal One was razed by fire at about 3:00 p.m. on Monday, and flight operations resumed around 7:20 p.m.

Traffic controllers were rescued using a crane; firefighters and other rescue agencies were present to contain the fire. 

(NAN)