An announcement has been made by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) about the discovery of a yet-to-be-identified corpse on the Murtala Muhammed runway. In a statement released by FAAN’s Acting Corporate Affairs General Manager, Faithful Hope-Ivbaze, the body stated that the body had been removed with the use of a motorized cleaner. The body which was found wearing an overall uniform and boots was discovered lying on the airport’s Runway 18R/36L on Thursday night, May 19th.
Subsequently, the FAAN ordered a temporary shutdown of the runway, as well the international wing of the airport between the hours of 1:10 am and 3.43 am to enable workers to remove the corpse. This, unfortunately, caused some delays in incoming flights namely a Boeing 77F airplane that was arriving in Lagos from Lome, Togo, and an Ethiopian Airlines flight 3907. According to reports, the Boeing aircraft later embarked on a return trip back to Lome after waiting for a while.
Though high ranking officials affiliated with both FAAN and the police are yet to make an official report, former Military Commandant of the MMIA, Group Captain John Ojikutu stated that there was a clear need for investigations to turn up how and why the unidentified man snuck onto a normally restricted part of the airport as such an occurrence constituted a major security breach in the airport’s defenses.
