Imo Airport fire: Matters arising

Pandemonium broke out penultimate Monday when the arrival hall of the refurbished Sam Onunaka Mbakwe International Cargo Airport was gutted by fire. The inferno, which raged for close to one hour, caused extensive damage at the airport, which is currently undergoing some renovation. Although no life was lost, the airport was said to have incurred […]

Pandemonium broke out penultimate Monday when the arrival hall of the refurbished Sam Onunaka Mbakwe International Cargo Airport was gutted by fire. The inferno, which raged for close to one hour, caused extensive damage at the airport, which is currently undergoing some renovation.

Although no life was lost, the airport was said to have incurred losses running into millions of naira in infrastructure and operational delays.

Imo Airport was the first state government built airport and handed over to the Federal Government of Nigeria under the management of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria. Constructed under Navy Cdr Anthony E. Oguguo, who was military governor of Imo State from 1990 to 1992 during the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida, the airport was named after the first civilian governor of the state – the late Chief Sam Onunaka Mbakwe.

From 2013 to 2014, the airport underwent upgrading of its infrastructure and the communication equipment covering the airspace past Port Harcourt Airport as part of the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) project.

The airport has night landing capabilities, but for most flights in non-international designated airports, FAAN restricts night operations except for passenger flights during pilgrimage (Hajj).

Currently, the cargo section is undergoing expansion. However, the project has been stalled due to inadequate funding. The contract for the renovation of the airport was said to have been awarded by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, under Ms Stella Oduah as the Minister of Aviation. It was part of the N106bn contract approved by the Federal Executive council, which was also meant for construction of six new airport terminals. The funding was supposed to be with a concessionary loan from China Nexim Bank in 22 years with 5 years moratorium at an interest rate of 2 per cent.

Apart from Imo Airport, other airports to benefit from the loan were Murtala Mohammed International Airport and the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) Lagos; the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja; Port Harcourt International Airport Omagwa; the Akanu Ibiam International Airport Enugu and the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport Kano.

Others are Margaret Ekpo International Airport Calabar; Yakubu Gowon Airport Jos; as well as the airports in Yola and Kaduna.

However, the recent fire incident appeared to have compounded the woes of the airport. Though the cause of the inferno was not immediately known, but a source at the airport said it must have been caused by a spark or power surge during the ongoing renovation of the arrival area.

Governor Rochas Okorocha and his likely successor Emeka Ihedioha, who were the first to arrival at the scene, expressed shock at the extent of damage. Okorocha, who was billed to take off to Abuja, had his flight delayed while Ihedioha got to the scene on his way from Akwa Ibom. Okorocha promised to fix the damage immediately.

Conspiracy Theory

Controversies have since surrounded the incident since it happened on Monday. The first was the political dimension the incident had turned to.

Sam Onwuemeodo, the chief Press Secretary to Gov Okorocha, was furious that Ihedioha, by going to the scene, had usurped the powers of his boss. In a statement he signed, Onwuemeodo said “In less than thirty minutes after the reported fire incident at the Imo Airport, Ihedioha rushed to the airport to inspect damages caused by the fire and also issued directives to the management of the airport. Did he do that in his capacity as what? Is he the governor of the state? And the speed with which he rushed to the airport was suspicious; perhaps, he knew what caused the fire incident because as a PDP man, there is no part in any movie they cannot act, including acting like James Bond (007).”

However, Ihedioha firing back through a member of the recently constituted media committee of his inauguration, Ori Martins, said that it was “an arrogant submission” by Onwuemeodo that Ihedioha should not have visited the scene of the fire incident. Martins said that Ihedioha was at the airport as a concerned citizen of the state and not as governor. He said that Ihedioha, who was arriving from Akwa Ibom was at the precinct of the airport when the incident happened and so felt obliged as a good citizen to go there as see things for himself.

Beyond the political hue the incident has acquired, there is also the theory that the fire might have been deliberately ignited.

In all these, FAAN management said that there is no immediate danger to the travelling public as flight operations resumed few hours after the incident. Indeed Governor Okorocha still took a flight from the airport after the incident.

FAAN image maker, Henrietta Yakubu, told our correspondent that Air Peace, one of the airlines that operate flight operations at the airport, maintained its services uninterrupted. She however frowned at a fake video clip purported to be burnt victims of the fire incident. She described it as the handiwork of mischief makers.

In a statement she issued later, Yakubu said, “The attention FAAN has been drawn to a false and malicious video presently trending online to the effect that there were casualties in the unfortunate fire incident that occurred at the Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport, Owerri yesterday (Monday).

“The Authority will like to state unequivocally that there was no casualty, as the fire was swiftly curtailed by officers of our Aerodrome Rescue and Fire Fighting Services. Indeed when our correspondent visited the airport on Wednesday, things seem normal while efforts are on to fix the damaged parts.