Pix 1: A teenage boy, Daniel Ihekina, who hid in the tyre hole of Arik
Air flying from Benin to Lagos. Pix 2: The boy being led away by
security agents.
| credits: File copy
THE
teenage stowaway, Daniel Ihekina, who was arrested at the Lagos Airport
after flying in the tyre hole of an Arik plane from Benin to Lagos on
Saturday morning, thought he was on a US-bound flight.
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.