Security beefed up at airport facility as boy attempts to stowaway

FOLLOWING the failed attempt by a teenager, Samuel Ogunbiyi to stow away through a private jet owned by Tag Aviation parked at the premises of Execujet Aviation Nigeria Limited, the company has fortified security at the facility.

The CEO of the company, Peter de Waal, said that more security personnel had been deployed at the airside through which Ogunbiyi sneaked into the private terminal, which is an international Fixed based Operator (FBO).

De Waal explained that the suspect who entered the airport on Saturday night was able to access the facility, evading the close circuit camera (CCTV) and security officials because he said he hid in dark shadows anytime he saw somebody and made a run for it when there was power outage.

The CEO also said that Ogunbiyi accessed the airport premises through the broken perimeter fencing at the Shasha/Akowonjo area and sneaked through the airside to the Execujet facility.

This was confirmed by the investigation carried out by the Nigeria Police Beesam Station located at the airport which stated that the suspect did not pass through any of the airport gates but “scaled through the MMIA along Shasha axis”.

De Waal said that the suspect was discovered when the pilot of the aircraft wanted to take off and he did routine walk with security operatives and Ogunbiyi was seen hiding in the wheel-well of the aircraft.

“He did not come through the Presidential (VIP) Gate; he came through Shasha/Akowonjo area and there have been thefts at the airport because that area is porous. People sneak into the airport through that area. However, we have fortified security at our own facility, but the airport management should also do the same, so that this kind of thing should never happen again. We are sure it will never happen again at our facility. He took the advantage of power outage, the interlude it took to switch on to generator. But we have taken care of that now,” de Waal said.

De Waal also warned that no government official should patronise anybody that attempts to stowaway, remarking that such behaviour tends to serve as incentive to others to make the risky attempt, adding that had the aircraft taken off while he was inside the wheel-well he would have been squeezed to death because that compartment is too small to contain a human being and the aircraft tyres as it is a small aircraft.

In his confessional statement, the suspect claimed he had entered the hangar through the facility of the headquarters, Air Defence Corps of Nigerian Air Force, located next to the Presidential/ VIP Lounge at the airport on Saturday night, with the help of a person he identified only as “a brother.”

In August 2013 Ricky Daniel Oikhena was brought to Lagos while hiding in the wheel-well of Arik air flight from Benin to the domestic terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

He was arrested and later detained but Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo state later gave him scholarship.