An incident of security breach occurred at a private, general aviation terminal, Execujet yesterday, when a 13-year-old male teenager named Samuel Ogungbeyi suspected to be a stowaway was arrested in the tyre compartment of an aircraft.

The aircraft was parked in the hangar of Execujet terminal of Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos.

A reliable source within the private terminal, who informed Newswatch Times of the arrest while seeking identity protection, said the teenager was discovered at about 12 noon when pilots of the aircraft marked M-MYNA, was carrying out a routine inspection on the aircraft before starting the engine.

The commanding pilot of the aircraft said to have detected the boy in the tyre compartment of the aircraft.

Also two handsets without sim cards which the suspect claimed ownership were also found in the same compartment.

In his confessional statement, the suspect claimed he had entered the hangar through the facility of the headquarters of Air Defence Corp of Nigerian Air Force located next to the Presidential/ VIP Lounge in the airport, on Saturday night with the help of a person he identified only as ‘a brother’.

The boy, who spoke in Yoruba and Pidgin English languages, said he was able to cross the runway L18 runway over to ExecuJet facility located in the international wing of the airport, a distance of about one kilometre, at night when he noticed there was no flight landing or taking off on the runway.

The aircraft, operated by Tag Aviation, was said to have flown in a former Minister of Petroleum, Chief Dan Etete into Lagos Airport on Saturday night and parked at the private hangar, where it was expected to take off yesterday afternoon before the incident happened.

Efforts by our correspondent to get the Nigerian Air Force, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to comment on the incident proved abortive.

Calls made to their lines were not going through. However, a military source which sought identity protection, described the allegation of the stowaway entering the airside of the airport through air force facility as an attempt by the terminal operator to cover up security lapses on its side.

Adapted from Newswatch Times

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