The teenage stowaway, Daniel Ihekina, who was arrested at the Lagos Airport after flying in the tyre hole of an Arik plane from Benin to Lagos on Saturday

The teenage stowaway, Daniel Ihekina, who was

arrested at the Lagos Airport after flying in the tyre

hole of an Arik plane from Benin to Lagos on Saturday

morning, thought he was on a US-bound flight.

A source at the Benin Airport who disclosed this said

the boy’s parents had already departed for Lagos in search of the stowaway.

The airport source, who did not want his name in print

said, “From what we heard, the boy said he was being

maltreated and tried to escape from his parents. He

thought he was on his way to the US.

“The parents have travelled to Lagos by road, to get him back.”

Meanwhile, investigations conducted by one of our

correspondents in Lagos revealed that the boy had

been handed over to the operatives of the State

Security Services for further investigation.

The General Manager, Corporate Communications, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Mr. Yakubu Dati,

who also confirmed the development, said the

aviation security personnel of the agency had handed

over the young voyager to the men of the SSS for

extensive investigation.

Dati said, “The residential address the boy gave to us was traced to a church in Benin by our airport

manager and his team. So, there is need to hand over

the teenager to the SSS who are experts in such

investigations. They will carry out further investigation

on the matter.”

The FAAN spokesman said the nature and circumstances surrounding the crime informed the

agency decision to hand over the stowaway to the

SSS operatives.

Meanwhile, following the Benin Airport incident, FAAN

has adopted the ‘risk amelioration processes to

safeguard flight operations’ at all its 22 airports across the country.

Dati stressed that the agency had tightened its risk

amelioration procedure to ensure that similar incident

did not occur again.