A source at the Benin Airport who
disclosed this said the boy’s parents had already departed for Lagos in
search of the stowaway.
The airport source, who did not want his
name in print said, “From what we heard, the boy said he was being
maltreated and tried to escape from his parents. He thought he was on
his way to the US.
“The parents have travelled to Lagos by road, to get him back.”
Meanwhile, investigations conducted by
one of our correspondents in Lagos revealed that the boy had been handed
over to the operatives of the State Security Services for further
investigation.
The General Manager, Corporate
Communications, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Mr. Yakubu Dati,
who also confirmed the development, said the aviation security personnel
of the agency had handed over the young voyager to the men of the SSS
for extensive investigation.
Dati said, “The residential address the
boy gave to us was traced to a church in Benin by our airport manager
and his team. So, there is need to hand over the teenager to the SSS who
are experts in such investigations. They will carry out further
investigation on the matter.”
The FAAN spokesman said the nature and
circumstances surrounding the crime informed the agency decision to hand
over the stowaway to the SSS operatives.
Meanwhile, following the Benin Airport
incident, FAAN has adopted the ‘risk amelioration processes to safeguard
flight operations’ at all its 22 airports across the country.
Dati stressed that the agency had tightened its risk amelioration procedure to ensure that similar incident did not occur again.
He also said the agency had prioritised the perimeter fencing of all the 22 airports in the country.
“In the meantime, we have adopted risk
amelioration processes to safeguard flight operations. As a result of
this incident in Benin, we have further tightened our risk amelioration
procedure to ensure that a similar incident does not occur,” he said.
However, FAAN has also continued to trade blame with Arik Air over the Benin incident.
The agency, in a statement on Sunday,
said it read with “great dismay the statement released by Arik Airlines
about the stowaway found on board Arik’s flight 544 from Benin to Lagos
on Saturday 24 August, 2013.”
Dati said FAAN was “unfairly indicted” while the airline took no responsibility whatsoever for such a “serious security breach.”
FAAN said its preliminary investigation had revealed that Arik did not give accurate account of the Benin Airport incident.
Giving the accounts of its preliminary
findings, FAAN said, “Our investigations reveal that a passenger on
board the flight called the attention of the cabin crew while the
aircraft was waiting to take off at the threshold of the runway, to the
effect that they had seen a young boy walk under the aircraft and had
not seen him re-appear on the other side.”
“The cabin crew in turn informed the
pilots in the cockpit about this. The pilots called the control tower
and asked them to request FAAN to do a sweep of the area after their
departure, opting to carry on with their flight despite the report.”
“Upon the arrival of the aircraft in
Lagos, we were informed that there had been a stowaway found alive
alighting from the wheel well of the aircraft. While FAAN takes this
security breach extremely seriously, we deem Arik’s attempt at indicting
and smearing FAAN as irresponsible. Safety and security breaches occur
when all the checks in the system are beaten. Given that security is a
responsibility for all players in this industry, a critical last
opportunity to detect and prevent this stowaway was offered and had the
airline taken the information by passengers as seriously as they should
have, this incident would have been avoided.”
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This boy is mean!... In short a Crook.
ReplyDeleteWho ever blames him is a crook, if you are fulfilled, look outside and see those hungry. This country as not favoured her children, he believes he will achieve it by going their.
ReplyDeleteA land that cares for his own is USA, what orientation do we give the young ones to believe in themselves.
Teachers in public schools rain abusive words on them, even parents rain curses over one offense or the other.
The country needs proper orientation, if a child is wrong cane him/her, advice and punish when necessary. As a parent you must learn to control your temperament when children provoke you.
Besides we all were once kids and we did the same to our parents.
The country needs psychological organisations where people will be re-oriented that traveling abroad is not as rosy as they see it on screen.
The security system in d airport is a complete failure . With this development are flight passangers safe anymore? So if d boy could have done that sucessfully and landed in Lagos how much more terrorist?
ReplyDeleteBUNCH OF BRAIN
ReplyDeleteif the boy could perform this act with ease, how much more the terrorist? the Security operatives in the Airport should go back to the drawing board and perform their duties professionally.
ReplyDeleteThis is a total shame to the aviation industry in Nigeria. How can that happen, IS there no security again? What of CCTV? Where were the security personnel. Somebody NEED to be fired here. What is the aviation minister saying. What if it was bomb the boy planted, the nation would have been mourning another huge loss. Father, please let justice begin in this land from the top down in Jesus name.
ReplyDeleteSo the hardship in this country is not restricted but little boy like Daniel can feel it.
ReplyDeleteYes, the boy decided to see the worst even death due to the adversity of our beloved country called Nigeria otherwise, he wouldn’t have dreamt of going to US in order to get relieved of the up-to-date suffering in the country.
We have to do something in the year 2015 to ensure that those disgruntle elements are flushed out of power.
this is total negligence on the airport security. meaning an explosive culd be planted at the aircraft landing gear and the perpetrators actualizing their evil deeds.....shame on airport security!!
ReplyDeleteTrain a child the way he or she should grow......The parents are to be blamed as well as the the naughty boy that have so far exposed the family to an open shame. To those of you hailing him and blaming Nigeria as a country for this boy's act, you should be totally ashamed of your selves, is this criminal the only one in his community or Nigeria? is he the only one going through hardship in the country? The SSS should investigate this boy's background, their may be other criminals in this family.
ReplyDeleteInstead of FAAN to seriously be worried about ds monumental security failure there busy trading blames.arik reported the they said they did not report well enuf!!! When the REAL question is how did the boy gain entrance into d airport facility in the first instance? Imagine hw ds kind information will be treated by foreign press? ...Odun Tutu
ReplyDeleteIt seems we are living in a different world. The sort of news we hear differ from the ones we hear from other countries. I am confused about this nation.
ReplyDeleteI can assure you, this is a serious security breach that other criminally minded people will buy into. watch my words. it has just opened the flood gate for criminal elements to key into. FAAN nay all the airlines should beef up security measures in all our airports.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly what happens in this country irresponsibility , Nigerian workers especially those in public offices are irresponsible . One of the reasons for this is because somebody feels he or she is highly connected even if he or she errs nobody will query him or her and surely nobody will do anything because the boss at the top will make sure that if anybody raises alarm the person will be the one to suffer instead of the offender . We want the security personnel at airport to tell us how manage the boy got himself inside the airport from the one go . There are over one million loopholes like this in Nigeria and that is the reasons the terrorists will continue to record succeed in their attacks . Government of the day is always send some of these public servants to local and over seas workshops still we continue to produce bundles of mediocrity who on getting back to their offices were only interest on the areas money is coming out .Government should seriously look into the activities of these offices at our intern ational airports customs , immigration and airline operators the bribe these people collect at our international airports is quite alarming . Their worst treatment is meted out to those who are travelling out for the first time
ReplyDeleteGod help us!
ReplyDeleteThe FAAN, Arik and d parents of d boy are all suspects! Who knows how many Nigerian kids who had succeeded in doing this? The poor little boy did not just wakeup and know the tyre compartment of a plane can carry him successfuly to the America. Someone who understands this is responsible for it. The SSS should see all Arik and FAAN staff all as suspects. By the way, how did the boy get to d run way? Will not blame the boy much because he was misled to seek green land away from the hardship of this country. What if it were a bombing mission, the govt would have delivered another national condolence speach that will end up with 'we will do everything to bring the pepetrators to book' and it will end that way. ...9ja 'll be fine!
ReplyDeleteI guessed as much that he thought the plane was bound for the overseas. Even if it were, I doubt this guy would have survived the trip.
ReplyDeleteThis country has failed, woefully too. Security is zero. If that boy carried a bomb, they will all be shedding crocodile tears, reading fake speech. Is there no CCTV at our aiports for heaven's sake. All we see is minister of aviation taking pictures here and there, the recent show of shame at Enugu airport, jubilating over Ethiopian airline when we don't even have a national carrier. Pls install cctv everywhere so that those idiotic immigration officers, sss, customs at the airport will stop harrassing us for money each time we travel out. The Lord is simply our Sheperd in this country.
ReplyDeleteThis boy got talent, we should stop blaming the boy instead we should proffer solution to his problem, send him to school on Scholarship. AIRIK Air can provide this for him if they really care, he got a big heart, treat him with respect, this is our feature leaders.
ReplyDeletei wish this boy would be trained to use his security expertise in the right direction...........i think he has got talent that the security department in Nigeria can harness to improve on their work.............in fact the boy is good, smart, courageous. train this boy ARIk airline pls
ReplyDeleteWhere are the security guys when this boy was doing this? Does it mean that if the boy decided to plant explosives he will do it with out any body detecting? Shame on the security system! ---BabaT.
ReplyDeleteThis is total rubbish...so nobody could c the boy while going towards the plane?so scaring..the boy would have been successful if he was to plant a bomb in the plane.Niaja and terrible security.this news sould not be broadcasted, cos its a disgrace to nigeria as a whole.the boy sould be reprimanded,coz he might be the to distroy nigeria,
ReplyDelete