Youths of the host community of the Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport (SMICA), Owerri, under the auspices of Onyeaghalanwanneya Youths Movement(OYM), have threatened to ground operations at the airport runway in protest
against the ‘gruesome’ murder of a pregnant woman from Awogwu village of Ngor Okpala community, Mrs. Chinwendu Amadi, who was reportedly raped and killed inside within the vicinity of the airport by yet-to-be-unidentified hoodlums.
The youths have accused the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) of not doing anything to improve security of the premises and stop attacks on the community members by hoodlums.
It was gathered that the woman’s mutilated body was found over the weekend in the bushy part of the airport near the runway.
According to the president general of Logara community, Chief Martin Opara, the deceased, who was a petty trader inside the airport, closed shop Thursday evening and was pushing home her wheelbarrow with a cooler containing okpa that she was selling, when she was waylaid on the bush path and violently raped and stabbed several times, and left naked and dead in the bush, along with her five-month unborn child.
It was learned that the woman must have been murdered to enable the perpetrators to cover their tracks.
The development has since sparked outrage in the community and within the airport host community, with Chief Opara vowing that the community would not take the gruesome murder of their pregnant wife within the airport premises lying low.
“The security around the airport must explain to us what happened to the woman and expectant mother within the airport premises. They cannot amass our land and up till now there is no structure put there by the FAAN.
“Except what the Imo State Government has done there recently, there is no visible presence of the federal government in that airport. This land is left to grow bushes and become threats to innocent people living around the airport,” Opara agonized.
Reacting to the development in a chat with newsmen, OYM accused the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) of deliberately running the airport without adequate security, a situation that has endangered the lives of both the community members and passengers.
The group gave FAAN one week to address the grey areas of security or have the airport operations shut down.
The OYM president and Government Liaison Officer for the area, Comrade Chukwuma Anuforo, lamented the death of Mrs. Amadi as a result of the neglect of the security of the premises by the FAAN, whose MD, he said, has refused to employ night guards shortlisted for him by the host community.
Recall that the youths had led a warning protest where the airport manager disclosed that she had sent all their requests to the FAAN management.
Their requests included the letter written by Governor Hope Uzodimma for job opportunities for host community that are yet to be implemented as well as the issue of night guards, which the airport manager assured Comrade Anuforo to inform those already working as night guards that the FAAN management has promised to confirm them as staff to continue their job, and that in due time their appointment letter would be released
He lamented that the community had on several occasions written reminders to the aviation minister and FAAN for remedies to be made, all to no avail.
“We’re giving FAAN one week to fix the problem or face our own problem,” he reiterated.
“Governor Hope Uzodimma has since made efforts to lighten up the airport runway which has since made night flights possible. But, you will be surprised to note that robbers have carted away some of the lights and the lighting system.
“These things happen because of the absence of the aviation security and night guards which the FAAN has refused to employ because normally they should come from the host community.
“But on a daily basis, you see newly employed people from NAMA and FAAN, all of them Yoruba people in various senior cadres. This is because they’re in charge of those agencies and they are taking advantage of the fact that they are in charge to employ only Yoruba staff. The minister of aviation, we learned, is not even aware of what they’re doing there. This is not good.”
