Inferno at Lagos airport destroyed vital weather equipment – Keyamo

2026-02-24 - 14:26

By Dickson Omobola Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo, has confirmed that the inferno at the Old Terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos destroyed equipment belonging to the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NiMet, housed in the facility. Keyamo, however, said the incident would expedite plans to reconstruct the terminal. According to the Minister, four persons injured in the fire were in stable condition and responding to treatment. At about noon, yesterday, a fire broke out at the terminal, leading to injuries to six persons and the diversion of three international flights. On Tuesday, Keyamo toured the facility alongside other senior aviation officials and newsmen to assess the extent of the damage. Vanguard observed that several airline check in counters were completely burnt, while parts of the ceiling were badly damaged. Some sections of the terminal were charred, with visible smoke stains and debris scattered on the floor. Addressing newsmen after the tour, the Minister said: “It is the terminal that we are about to pull down. Even though we are trying to pull down this old terminal, there was certain equipment that we also needed to retrieve. “Certain persons also needed to leave the old building for us to start work there. However, let me assure Nigerians that even before this fire, if you look behind, we had already made a temporary arrangement to move most of the airlines, most of the entities in that space to the temporary place provided by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, CCEC. What this has just done is to hasten our move away from the building. “The building was about to be pulled down anyway and totally rehabilitated. However, a lot of our equipment was damaged. For example, our NiMET equipment, our NiMET office where they read the weather is totally gone. I am sure you saw most of the air traffic controllers who were trapped up there yesterday too. “Many of them had to be rescued by crane. So, some of our equipment is damaged. It will hasten our process of reconstruction. They are on site already. They are reconstructing the new bridge to the new terminal. They are on site. The CCECC is on site already. We are just waiting for people to evacuate. “So, this fire actually hastens our movement away from the place. We have made temporary arrangements for air traffic control. For now, they are using a temporary tower. Then, also, mobile towers are coming in today for us to resume normal flight activities. “So, I want to assure the public that flight activities will not be disrupted in any way at all. We have not taken stock to know how much we lost. Like I said, NiMET especially, the weather people, they are there on the fourth or the fifth floor. All their equipment is gone. Well, we have other stations that read weather. We can make temporary arrangements to move some here, while we look at the grand plan to replace those equipment.” Vanguard News