March 26, (THEWILL) – Gunmen suspected to be bandits on Saturday, attacked the Kaduna International Airport, shooting dead a security officer of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Shehu Na’Allah.
The bandits, THEWILL gathered, overran the runway and prevented a Lagos-bound AZMAN aircraft from taking off at about 12:30 pm.
The attack forced the authorities to temporarily shut down the Airport, while the military battled the gunmen.
Confirming the incident, the manager of the Airport, Mrs Amina Salami, said that the bandits invaded the airport through the perimeter fence from a nearby forest at about 1pm on Saturday afternoon, and started shooting sporadically to scare the workers. Adding that a security guard with NAMA, who was patrolling around the runway was shot to death by the bandits.
Salami said, the sound of gunshot attracted the attention of armed security operatives, who arrived the scene, and were able to repel the bandits from gaining access into the main airport complex.
A security source at the Airport said the attack began at midnight, but the military repelled the bandits; adding that the gunmen, however, reinforced and returned at about 1pm on Saturday.
“The bandit’s attack started around 12:00am today (Saturday). They started attacking the airport around midnight. The bandits were alleging that the military personnel took away their cattle.
“The military were able to repel them that midnight and we thought that was all. In fact, our staff resumed work this morning as usual. They worked around runway five till around 12:00 pm.
“Then, shortly after that, some NAMA staff went to check some of their equipment. These people (bandits) appeared and started shooting. The NAMA engineers scampered for safety; they could not even go and enter the vehicle that took them to the site. It was in the process that their security man was shot in the head.
“The security man was rushed to the hospital and he was confirmed dead”, the source said.
It was gathered that many of the staff have already fled the Airport, while more military personnel have been deployed to the scene on clearance operation with an Armoured Personnel Carrier.
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