By Prince Okafor

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, has assumed full responsibility for an incident with the escalators at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, which occurred over the weekend.

The authority also in a message to Vanguard, tendered an unreserved apology to the family involved, stating that they are taking adequate measures to ensure it never reoccurred.

An escalator is a power-driven set of stairs arranged like an endless belt that ascends or descends continuously.

Vanguard gathered that a woman narrated her life-threatening experience with escalators at the Airport while arriving with her family on Saturday, 3 2022.

She noted that while on the escalator, she noticed that the razor-sharp edge was going very fast.

According to her, “I looked down and the very fast escalator had people tumbling on themselves. Humans started piling on each other. My reflex, I lifted my five-year-old, he spread his legs high while I lay on my back joining the pile of humans at the base of the escalator.

“The only defence I had for myself was to raise my head so that only my back was bearing the grind of the escalators. A passenger snatched my Son, also, my nine-year-old son that was behind me jumped over the railings and other passengers caught him.

“My husband was behind me and had managed to take a grip that only his back was scratched by the sharp edges. Eventually, some people lifted me up at the base of the death trap called escalators.

“The immigration officers that were looking at us looked away while continuing with the job at hand. Despite the shouts, the wailing and pandemonium, everyone was going on with their activities. It took them over 40 minutes for first aid to arrive after my husband had shouted down the airport.”

Meanwhile, in a swift reaction, the Acting General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Faithful A. Hope-Ivbaze, stated that, “With respect to the above-mentioned incident which occurred at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on Saturday, September 3, 2022, the FAAN takes full responsibility for the unfortunate incident, and we hereby tender our apology to the family involved.

“Accordingly, we have also reached out to actively participate in the care for the injured. FAAN is now reviewing the operating procedure for the equipment, to ensure that such sudden mechanical faults do not occur again.”