By Izunna Okafor
The roofs, control tower and some other of the recently-commissioned Anambra International Airport, Umueri, currently wear a new look, following a heavy state-wide downpour that badgered in Anambra on Saturday evening.
The heavy rain, which lasted for over one hour, was also the first of such downpour experienced by the airport since after its commissioning in October 2021.
It was however unimaginable that some parts of the airport ‘did not remain the same’ both during and after the rain visited the airport, with its accompanying thunderstorm, which came as though to test the standard of the facility.
Pictures from the airport facilities show that some of the Alucobond materials on the control tower were blown off by the wave, while few others that remain are half-loose and apparently shattered beyond imagination.
Roof of the toilet gallery was also literally shattered and torn off by the wave, while the terminal building also got its own share of the touse and tousle.
Other major buildings in the airport were also significantly affected by the rain, the effect of which were seen mostly on the roofs, walls and other parts of the buildings.
This development has, however, begun to elicit reactions from concerned indigens of Anambra on various social media platforms, some of whom attribute the damages to the severity of the downpour and thunderstorm, while others attributed them to the shoddiness of the construction works done on the airport.
When contacted, the state’s Commissioner for Works, Engr. Marcel Ifejiofor said the rainstorm was very terrible, to the extent that all flights to the airport were diverted during the period.
“When you get to the airport, ask people who were there about the rainstorm, they will tell you, to understand better. The rainstorm there was very terrible, and all flights were all diverted. Go there to see things for yourself,” he said.
In his own reaction, a stalwart of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the state and Coordinator of 2019 Coalition of APC House of Assembly Candidates in the state, Hon. Paul Ezeobi explained that it was disappointing to witness such massive damages so early and just after first rainfall. He therefore called on the incoming Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Charles Soludo, to critically review the structural standard of the airport and its facilities, to strengthen them to make them safer for people’s usage.
“If with this little rain that fell, all those damages are recorded, ceilings are falling off, roofs are falling off, and so on, it means the airport is not even safe for human beings,” he said.
An Engineer by profession, Hon. Ezeobi, who is also a Governing Council member of the Modibbo Adama University, Yola, said such unexpected damages “are evidences that the outgoing Governor Willie Obiano does not have any major signature project in the state, because that airport is the only major signature project he is leaving behind.”
“This is also a call on Soludo to come in with better standard,” he added.
All efforts to speak with the MD/CEO, Anambra State Clear Drainage and Forest Preservation Agency, Chief Chido Obidiegwu, on the effects of the rain, proved abortive, as his number could not connect as at the press time.
