The senate yesterday bemoaned the national embarrassment caused by the power outage at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, which trapped in-bound British Airways passengers for over one hour on Saturday.
Consequently, it has summoned the management of Power Hold Company of Nigeria (PHCN); Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN); National Integrated Power Project and Julius Berger over the incident, which it said has become consistent at the airport.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation, Senator Hope Uzodinma, issued the order when members of the committee visited the airport to assess situation there.
Over 200 passengers on a British Airways flight from London were reported to have been forced to remain on board for over one hour early Saturday morning due to power outage.
The BA passengers were said to have been advised to remain on board for security reasons.
Uzodinma described consistent power outage at the nation’s airports as an avoidable national embarrassment.
He said that PHCN, NIPP, FAAN Julius Berger were invited to articulate ways and means to put a permanent stop to power outage at the nation’s airports.
He further explained that Julius Berger was specifically invited because the construction giant procured and had been maintaining the three generating sets at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport that broke down at the same time on Saturday.
Uzodinma told journalists that their visit to the airport was prompted by the power outage that led to blackout at the airport.
He noted that since the same thing had happened consistently about three times in the last three months, Saturday’s blackout provoked their interest to go to the airport to see things for themselves.
Uzodinma further noted that they needed to know “what really happened, the cause and to ensure that such ugly incident did not repeat itself again in future.”
He said, “We have been told that two dedicated lines of PHCN to the airport, one has been recovered and given to the host communities, which is not a bad idea but the problem is that the recovered line has not been replaced.
?“All over the world, airports are run on dedicated lines to avoid interruption. But the alternate solution which is generating sets procured and maintained by Julius Berger Plc three of them broke down at the same time on Saturday.
?“But in the wisdom of the Ministry of Aviation they have procured three new generators for replacement of the aging generators.
?“All we need to do now is to invite NIPP, PHCN, FAAN and Julius Berger to articulate ways and means and to agree on a permanent solution to power outage at the airport.
?“This is to ensure that the country does not receive this kind of national embarrassment and sense of insecurity anymore.”
The lawmaker said that it would be too early for anybody to suspect any foul play at the moment.
He noted that the interest of the committee to ensure sanity surpasses any particular airliner including BA.
The passengers on board during the incident, he said, were Nigerians “whom we have the responsibility to protect their lives using the platform of government that is available to us.”
FAAN Regional Manager, Chris Bature said that BA passengers were asked to remain on board for security reasons.
Bature said that they depended on generating sets because power supplied by PHCN had been completely erratic and therefore unreliable.
He also complained that one of the dedicated lines given to their host communities had been affecting power supply to the airport.
Unconfirmed report however indicated that the power outage was caused largely due to lack of diesel.
But Uzodinma said the meeting with the stakeholders holds today.
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