Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State on Thursday condemned the theft of part of the Instrument Landing System (ILS) being installed at the Benin
Airport, a statement issued by the Edo State Government House, Benin,
said.
The equipment was bought a few days ago by the state government to
enable aircraft take off and land at the airport on 24 hours basis, the statement said.
The Benin Airport is owned and operated by the Federal Government.
According to the statement, “The Instrument Landing System (ILS) is a
radio navigation system which provides aircraft with horizontal and
vertical guidance before and during landing.”
It further disclosed that some equipment in the Glide Slope, a component
of the ILS, which provides the vertical guidance, was stolen while
facilities at the localiser component were intact.
The statement said a disappointed Obaseki, who was on a tour of the
facility at the airport, is said to have asked the State Security
Service to immediately investigate and fish out those behind the theft.
He said, “I assured Edo people that our airport will render 24-hour
services and we have been working on that with the relevant Federal
Government agencies to see how we can get the necessary equipment in
place to allow this happen.
“We have been able to secure the ILS and the necessary equipment, we
also have an agreement to put runway lights so that planes can be guided
to land at night.
“Work has started but there is little incident as some of the equipment
bought last week have been stolen. We have brought in security agencies
to investigate and get the culprits arrested and ensure the work
proceeds as desired.
“Our goal is to ensure that before the harmattan season, the Benin
Airport will be ready to function as a 24/7 airport and more importantly, have the landing system to navigate flights even in bad weather.”
Officials of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the National Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) accompanied the governor on the facility tour.
