18th November, 2015
The Deputy General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Mrs Henrietta Yakubu, said this during interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.
Yakubu stated that the current improvement in the area of sanitation was a direct result of the engagement of the cleaning firm, Lakewood Development Company Limited, by the authority.
NAN reports that a lot of improvements had been recorded in the maintenance of the toilets at the airport terminal where both domestic and international flight operations are currently concentrated.
An official of the Airport, who pleaded anonymity, told NAN that the airport was currently operating beyond its capacity due to the concentration of both domestic and international operations in one place.
The official explained that the terminal being used for both domestic and international flights was originally designed to accommodate only international operations, adding that the airport needed expansion.
The official added that the management of the airport had devised a mean to manage the sanitation issues by engaging the cleaning firm.
The Managing Director of the cleaning firm, Mr Sam Nchezor, also told NAN that the company was carrying out janitorial services in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Calabar airports.
Nchezor said the company had deployed modern equipment to ensure that it rendered quality service to the nation’s airports across the country.
He said the company had ensured that all the toilets in all the airports were adequately taken care of and kept to best standard.
According to Nchezor, the company is also poised to take management and maintenance of airport facilities to a new level, especially in Nigeria.
“We have the responsibility of maintaining all the facilities of the airport from ground scrubbing, marble and granites to the top roof of the terminal.
“We have been able to do our best to bring the airport out of sanitation quagmire resulting from lack of adequate maintenance of facilities in the past.
“We have been in the service of Nigerian airport since 2013 but before coming to Nigeria, we were cleaning at the Gate 7 of the Heathrow Airport, London.
“But with the arrival of these new equipment, the company is able to change the face of the airports in the area of sanitation because this is the first time these equipment are being used in Nigeria.
“For instance, the land sweeper machine can sweep 7,000 square metres per hour and this is what is being used in many world class airports like Heathrow, Frankfurt and so on.
“We have also trained personnel to handle the equipment both in operation and maintenance and we run our services on a 24-hour basis’’, he said.
Nchezor disclosed that the company was making use of human friendly chemicals in accordance with International Sanitary Supply Association (ISSA) standard, of which it is a member.
A traveler, Mr Andrew Idejo, said there was improvement in the airport toilets as well as the general terminal, urging the authority to do more to always keep the airports clean.
Idejo, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the way travelers struggled through traffic jam to come to the airport.
He called on the Federal Government to complete the ongoing projects to expand the airport and save travelers from unnecessary hardship in accessing the facility