Villagers angered by the blockage of the footpath they normally use as a thoroughfare, by airport authorities installing perimeter fencing around Nigeria’s northern Kaduna Airport, Sunday impounded a plane owned by domestic IRS Airline and held the passengers inside hostage in protest.
According to local media reports Monday, the villagers, from Ifira community, decided to impound the plane with its passengers until the police came to disperse them.
The aircraft was not damaged and none of the passengers was hurt, the report said, quoting an official of the umbrella Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Alhaji Muhammed Tukur.
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), which is in charge of the country’s airports, has stepped up the perimeter fencing of the airports after goats strayed onto the tarmac while a plane was landing at the northern Bauchi Airport recently.
The near-disaster generated much controversy, especially because the plane involved was bearing the vice presidential candidate of the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), who were coming to the city for a political rally.
The fencing of the airport also forms part of the ongoing construction of perimeter fencing in eight airports across the country in preparation for the forthcoming inspection by the audit team of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
