Fear and panic gripped Abuja residents yesterday as two incidents crippled business and economic activities. First was a Saudi Arabian Cargo plane that overshot the runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, obstructing other airlines from taking off or landing at the airport and a tanker explosion in the Central Area.
The huge explosion, which ignited fire that later metamorphosed into a serious inferno that engulfed Conoil filling station in the Central Business District of the federal capital situated opposite the corporate head office of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC made passersby and staff of adjoining offices to scamper to safety with the thinking that it was terrorists’ bomb.
The sound of the explosion which was heard across the city centre occurred when one of the petrol tankers belonging to Conoil and fully loaded with fuel was trying to offload its contents when suddenly there was explosion which ignited fire. Another account of the incident was that while customers queued up to buy fuel from the filling station at about 2pm, four petrol tankers were offloading their contents simultaneously into the reservoir when the explosion occurred.
Abuja Police Command, FCT Fire Service, National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, and the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, which confirmed the incident, said their staff was immediately deployed to the scene to contain the raging inferno, prevent casualties and control the teeming crowd who gathered to catch sight of the fire.
Following the ugly development, business activities in the area were paralysed as efforts were made to put out the fire. Critically affected were Total Oil, NNPC, Zenith Bank, Unity Bank, Nigerian Stock Exchange and other nearby offices which were hurriedly closed down as sympathizers were eager to see the end of the inferno.
To douse mounting worries by Nigerians that its offices may have been affected by the explosion and/or inferno, the Management of NNPC, said that the four towers of its corporate headquarters were neither affected nor the complex bombed by any insurgent group.
This was contained in a statement issued by the General Manager, Media Relations Department, Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim on Thursday in Abuja.
Dr. Ibrahim stated that a fuel tanker was offloading premium motor spirit (petrol) at the filling station across the road, opposite the NNPC Towers, when it suddenly caught fire.
‘’When the filling station opposite the NNPC Towers Abuja went up in flames on yesterday afternoon, the NNPC as a socially responsible and responsive corporate body mobilized its firemen to help in combating the raging inferno. I can say without mincing words that there was explosion in the Towers’’, Dr. Ibrahim stated.
On its part the FCT Police Commissioner, Mr. Femi Ogunboye who was at the scene told newsmen that the command received a distress call at about 3:10pm calling for immediate response by the police as there was a fire outbreak at the Conoil filling station which resulted from an exploded fire tanker.
Also yesterday, intending travelers in and out of Abuja were temporarily stranded when the airport was shutdown following the near-crash landing of a Saudi Arabian cargo plane which developed fault and landed on the only major runway thereby preventing planes from leaving or landing at the airport.
The Nigeria Airspace Management Agency issued a notice to Airmen on Thursday morning indicating that the airport had been closed to both incoming and outbound planes.
Following the incident, two major functional domestic airlines in Nigeria, Aero Contractors and Arik Air, cancelled all their flights from Abuja airport causing panic.
In a quick reaction, the Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah, in a statement by her Special Assistant of Media, Joe Obi, confirmed that all flights into Abuja have been temporarily suspended till further notice.
The minister’s spokesperson said, “A Saudi Arabian B747 cargo aircraft landed in Abuja last night and veered off at the manoeuvring area of the runway, ran into a maintenance area of the runway and stopped.”
Mr. Obi said flights into Abuja airport were put on hold so as to facilitate evacuation effort on the runway. He said normal operations will resume immediately the aircraft is removed.
In another statement, the Group Corporate Communications Manager of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, Yakubu Dati, said no casualty was recorded while plans were underway to move the aircraft away following a preliminary assessment visit by Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau AIPB, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority NCAA, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, and other relevant agencies.
The statement also said that the Saudi plane incident was not a plane crash and apologized to travellers and airport users for inconveniences caused. It added that concerted effort was being intensified to remove the obstacle and restore normalcy.
The airport problem also hindered all planes leaving the Nigerian capital, as the affected runway is believed to be the only standard one.
Meanwhile, the airport was later re-opened for business. The Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, Engr Nnamdi Udoh, told journalists at the General Aviation Terminal of the airport that the Boeing 747 Saudi Air Cargo Flight SVA 6814 that veered off the runway on Wednesday night has been successfully recovered.
He said the airport has re-opened for normal flight operations. Udoh said the accident was a minor one and no casualty was recorded. He expressed regrets over the inconvenience the temporary suspension of flight operations in Abuja had caused the travelling public.
He further said that safety and security of travelers was paramount to theNigerian aviation authority. He said the Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau (AIPB) had commenced investigations into the incident and the report would be released soon.
In the same vein, Fire-fighters in Abuja yesterday evening put out the fire that engulfed a Conoil filling station in the Nigerian capital.The fire-fighters successfully put out the fire after about two hours. However, the cause of the fire is yet to be made public.