FAAN MD to appear before police team investigating fire

The Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN, Mr Saleh Dunoma, is to appear before a police team investigating the Tuesday fire that gutted some offices at the FAAN headquarters in Lagos.

Dunoma made the disclosure while briefing newsmen after inspecting the damage caused by the fire which affected some offices at the headquarters earlier in the day.

Our correspondent reports that though there were no casualties, files and other valuable equipment belonging to the aviation agency were destroyed by the fire.

The incident also caused heavy vehicular traffic around the airport and its environs for several hours.

Dunoma said the police was carrying out an investigation on the incident, and FAAN had also constituted a separate panel to look into the causes of the fire.

According to him, both investigations are going on concurrently.

“Police investigation is necessary because under the constitution, they are allowed to investigate such incidents.

“I am to appear before them too as part of their investigation,” he said.

The managing director said that FAAN had given its own investigative panel constituted to find out remote and immediate causes of the fire two weeks to submit its findings.

Dunoma said the investigative panel would not only submit its findings on the incident, but also make recommendations.

He said the fire, which started at about 8.20am affected some offices, including the Audit, Public Affairs and Commercial Departments.

The managing director, who described the incident as a very sad development, said the cause of the inferno would be made known at the conclusion of investigation.

According to him, members of the FAAN panel are drawn from the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, the Accident Investigation Bureau and the Department of State Security.

Others are FAAN Aviation Security, Safety Department, Fire Department and Legal Department which is to provide the secretary of the panel.

“They are to look into the remote and immediate causes of the incident, the extent of damage, contributions by various agencies and proffer solutions to these issues, so that we can prevent future occurrences.

“The panel has two weeks to submit its report and immediate action will be taken on their recommendations,’’ he said.

He assured members of the general public that the incident had not deterred FAAN from carrying out its statutory responsibilities at the airport, stressing that full operations would resume on Wednesday.

The managing director said the plan by the agency to construct a new edifice at its headquarters was ongoing, as the management was currently studying the proposals from the architects that had indicated interest in the project.