Daniel Ihekina, the Mysterious Nigerian teenager on free fight

This incredulous story should go into the Guinness Book of Record. Daniel Ihekina, a young Nigerian teenager outsmarted airliners, passengers and security personnel in  airport and had a free flight, hiding in the tyre compartment of the commercial aircraft from Benin to Lagos. From his picture he doesn’t look like a witch or wizard. He looks every inch human, wearing a simple, white cross necklace. One wonder if he should be punished or rewarded for his daring exploit.

The story in the Punch newspaper read:

A teenager beat airline and airport security at the Benin Airport and sneaked into the tyre compartment of a Lagos-bound Arik plane, where he flew safely to the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, on Saturday morning.

There was, however, pandemonium at the airside of the Lagos airport when passengers disembarking from the aircraft saw the teenager as he emerged from the undercarriage (aircraft tyre hole) to join fellow travellers.

The adolescent stowaway, identified as Daniel Ihekina, was immediately arrested by security officials at the airport.

The Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria and Arik Air confirmed the incident.

Although the General Manager, Corporate Communications, FAAN, Mr. Yakubu Dati, said full and urgent investigation had commenced into the mysterious circumstances that led to the huge breach in airport and airline security, the situation has continued to beat the imagination of aviation authorities in the country.

The situation, which has become a major source of worry among the authorities, has also led to a blame game between FAAN and Arik.

FAAN, in a statement on Saturday, said it held “Arik Air liable for the circumstances leading to the stowaway of a teenage boy on its aircraft at the Benin Airport.”

In a statement signed by Dati, FAAN, said, “Arik Air acted with impunity by not stopping the aircraft to check when the crew and ground personnel’s attention was drawn to an abnormality on the tarmac.”

According to the FAAN spokesman, the procedure for such infraction is for the crew to abort the flight and return to the apron for check-up.

He blamed the airline for the alleged impunity, warning that the airport authority would not tolerate such infraction from any operator.

He said, “This is arrant display of impunity. The aircraft should not have taxied further, but return to the apron until a proper check is carried out on all parts of the aircraft.  FAAN will not tolerate such impunity henceforth from Arik or any airline. Any violation would be met with applicable sanctions.

Dati, however, said the teenager was already giving useful information to unravel this ‘misnomer.’

In a swift reaction, Arik, in a statement, blamed FAAN for the huge breach in security, noting that the incessant cases of security breaches at the nation’s airport had become a major source of concern to the airline.

The statement quoted Arik’s Managing Director, Mr. Chris Ndulue, as saying, “We are worried by the incessant security lapses at our airports.  We are appealing to the management of FAAN to immediately address the problem.

“The management of Arik Air has expressed shock over the incident, wondering how the teenager beat the aviation security personnel at the Benin Airport to get to the runway.”

Arik said its pilot had reported to the control tower the presence of a strange boy in the bush about 200 – 300 metres at the end of runway before leaving the airport.

Ndulue said the control tower had told its pilot that they were sending security men to the place to arrest the boy.

Ndulue, however, said, “As the captain was making his final turn, preparatory for take-off, a cabin crew called his attention to the information by some of the passengers that they saw a boy running towards the airplane.  The First Officer confirmed that they had observed it earlier and alerted the control tower which responded that they had sent the patrol team to arrest the boy.  The captain again reported to the control tower and was informed that the situation was under control and that he had been cleared for take-off.

“On arrival at the domestic wing of MMA, Lagos, a teenage boy, who apparently had sneaked into the aircraft main wheel well jumped out and was arrested by Arik personnel and handed over to FAAN security.”

The Arik aircraft with registration number, 5N-MJG Flight 44, which left the Benin Airport around 9am for Lagos, was said to have on board top officials of the Edo State Government.

A passenger aboard the flight, who spoke with Sunday Punch on the telephone said, “We felt the signs in Benin when the plane was about leaving and as it was moving slowly, we heard a loud noise as if the tyre crushed somebody on the ground and we all started shouting. It means the boy was already inside that tyre compartment before we left. We left for Lagos, but when we landed at Lagos Airport, the boy came out from the tyre hole, everybody started shouting.

“But speaking seriously, this shows that we have a serious problem as regards securing our airports. This is a serious security breach. If that boy was carrying bomb, it means he would have succeeded in blowing up the plane. How can somebody be in an aircraft without being detected; we are in trouble in this country.”

Though no official at the Benin Airport volunteered comment on the issue, it was gathered that the teenager may have gained entrance into the airport from the Akenzua road axis, where perimeter fencing is non-existent at different points.

In 2010, a desperate young Nigerian, Emeka Okechukwu Okeke, who tried to smuggle himself to the United States, died in the tyre compartment of a Delta Airlines aircraft and was discovered on arrival in New York.

Okeke, sneaked into the place at Lagos airport.

In 2012, the dead body of a young Nigerian man was also discovered in the wheel well, the undercarriage compartment of a domestic airline, after it returned from South Africa.

The post Nigerian Teenager Sets New Record, Flies Benin to Lagos hiding in tyre hole of Commercial Airline appeared first on YAShuaib.

NEMA Helicopter

Nigeria has continued to witness series of embarrassing disasters and emergency situations that are largely man-made; for instance youth militancy, communal clashes, religious conflicts, fire outbreaks, road accidents, kidnapping and robberies. The magnitudes of the carnages usually overwhelm response agencies responsible for managing and mitigating such situations.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) an organization charged with the responsibility of managing disasters and emergencies in Nigeria becomes the major focus when members of its staff on humanitarian duties recently escaped violent attacks from warring parties during the Jos crisis in which an ambulance belonging to the organization was completely burnt. Another of such incident was that of the communal clash between neighbouring villages in Akwa Ibom and Cross River States along the Adeng River, Ikpanya in Ibiono Local Government Area.

While these incidents were yet to be addressed, an aircraft hired by NEMA for mock rescue exercise crash-landed in Port-Harcourt International Airport. Rescue workers on the ground that had actually been on the standby for the mock exercise instead found themselves dealing with real emergency and saved all the passengers and crew from death.

While the passengers of the plane crash were being evacuated by the proactive response agencies on the ground, another disaster occurred in Kanti Kwari, the largest textile market in Kano state. The only available NEMA rescue helicopter was quickly dispatched from Abuja to assist the beleaguered fire-fighters in the ancient city. People on ground were marveled and thrilled by the helicopter that was dispensing fire extinguishing chemical from the air and at the same time rescuing trapped victims, a typical scene from Hollywood movie.

The failed simulation exercise in Port-Harcourt was one of the series of the practical trainings NEMA organises to ascertain the level of preparedness of response agencies in the face of natural and man-made disasters. The purpose of the simulation (mock) exercise is to test the capabilities of the first response agencies in the event of an air crash within the airport vicinity where both national and international passengers may be involved. The agency also uses such opportunities to study response capability in medical response, equipment holding, media and information management towards the same goals; safety of lives and properties. Similar exercises in the past were successfully staged at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja and other locations across Nigeria, including simulated road accidents. Participants at such exercises included fire fighters, health workers, security personnel and emergency agencies. The response agencies include Federal safety Commission (FRSC), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Read Cross, the Army among others.

During one of the simulation exercises, the Director General of NEMA, AVM Mohammed Audu-Bida (Rtd) emphasised that class room training are mere theoretical while simulation exercises provide practical experiences, and this would help to test the capability and ability of officers in responding to life-threatening situation professionally and promptly. Recently the agency invited some Israeli emergency experts to train some Nigerian personnel on search and rescue operation during plane crash, Ship wreck, fire incidences, flood situations and other disaster scenarios that could happen in any part of the country.

Victims of the fire incident in Kano are already clamouring for compensation from government. If they had heeded the several warnings and campaigns by NEMA to insure their goods, by now they would enjoyed peace of mind and recovered from the losses by benefiting from such insurance policies.

The occurrence of disasters and emergencies in the country has increased in both frequency and intensity due to increase in population. Most times market fire are attributed to shop-owners’ carelessness in handling electrical appliances, faulty electric wiring and storage of inflammable substances in unsafe manners. Billions of Naira and human lives have been lost to the inferno with most victims failing to recover financially and physically afterwards. It is against this background that the NEMA conceived the idea of evolving an insurance scheme for both structures and the individual shops in those markets tagged Market Shop Owners Insurance Scheme in 2009. It worked out affordable insurance cover for patronage of shop owners with insurance firms so that in the event of major fire incidents, victims are guaranteed of immediate, adequate and satisfactory compensation to enable them recover quickly from their losses. It is common knowledge that the best fire fighting technique is prevention and the best strategy for recovery is insurance cover.

It is the responsibility of the market authorities to insure the markets while the traders insure their wares and properties, by this, market authorities will receive claims to restore the market structure in earnest while the traders will use their claims to bounce back to business. This is the best recovery strategy from market fire disasters all over the world.

Unfortunately with the campaign across the country, only few market owners in Lagos, Ibadan and Kaduna have bought into the initiatives. Those who have insured their individual shops and properties would not have been in desperate moves to rescue their wares and got consumed in the inferno like an Igbo chieftaincy title holder who died in Kano fire while attempting to retrieve his wares worth millions of Naira.

While the Federal Government has been making efforts through NEMA to promote disaster resilience in the country, the states must also be actively involved to achieve the desired objectives through the establishment of their respective State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMAs). The local agencies are required to response to disasters within the capacity of the states and request for Federal assistance only in overwhelming circumstances. Only few states have so far established functional offices with well-trained staffs for emergency services.

The sustainability of emergency response service in the country requires active commitments of States and Local Governments to mobilize and train the people at the communities including volunteers. The involvement of trained volunteer groups in Kano fire was quite encouraging and commendable as the situation did not escalate to mass-looting or leading to past incidence of attacks on innocent residents.

This article by Yushau A. Shuaib was originally published in March 2010 by the Economic confidential, Daily Trust, Vanguard, Leadership, Champion, People Daily and Nigerian Tribune

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