EFCC URGED TO INVESTIGATE N44BN PAID BY AIRLINES TO FAAN

BY PROVIDENCE OBUH
Nigeria Airline operators have alleged that the purported remodeling of the nation's Airport by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) was rather destructive, even as they called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the amount being spent on the remodeling process.

They also urged the graft agency to investigate the N44 billion paid by the Nigerian Airlines operators to FAAN through Maevis Nigeria Limited which the Airport authority claimed it has not received.

Speaking on behalf of the body, Assistant Secretary General, Airline Operators of Nigeria, Alhaji Mohammed Tukur, said 'After a critical check on the airports, what we found is not what we are expected, especially in some Airport like Kano, Lagos and Abuja.

'If a Minister is really serious about this particular renovation, the regional Managers and other people involved, especially the engineering department, at the three airports authorities should all be involved. From all indication, they are taking us back, because when you ask any official, he tells you that they know nothing about what is happening and that is the way they see it.

'Go to Murtala Muhammed International Airport, and I give everybody an assignment, go and see the renovation that is going on there. Murtala Muhammed International Airport has a map, that map has plan A and B, there is nobody introducing plan A or B; what they did is that they are just starting100 meter, without looking into the map.

'When you look at the renovation that is going on at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, the Mutala Mutala Muhammed International Airport that we know, any passenger or anybody can go there and see. In the 60's, during Murtala Muhammed period, we did not find things happening this way. When you come everything was functional, now nothing is functioning.

'The terminal Managers, Airport Managers, International and Civil Servants, I had  the opportunity to talk to them and I think the Minister need to know because we hold her responsible for what is happening that she is destroying that terminal. If it is temporary, that when renovation is finished, they will come back and do it again, then it is waste of money, there is no need to remove the old tiles and replaced them with inferior type.

'So I want to use this opportunity to tell the Federal Government the damage they are doing to our airport instead of doing the right thing, because I believe that particular work is not temporary, that is in one area.

'If you go to Kaduna airport the whole terminal building has been destroyed in the name of renovation, so if they have not completed the job on time, an Airport without a terminal, what do you call that, Airfield?  By estimate you need about N30 billion in other to build a new terminal.

'If you want to renovate Murtalala Muhammed International Airport, you can easily close the Arabians, then, renovate it first, put all the necessary things. When you finish, then you open and go back to the other C.'

The truth of the matter is that they can remove two to three aircraft and ask them to be checking-in through any of the terminals in our country here, especially in GO2O, MM2. They are part of Nigeria property; part of the property of the Federal Airport Authority, they can reconcile themselves, put a deadline, six months two months, and then make sure you renovate and you transfer the passenger, you can take your passenger, the handling company can move the vehicle to the International.'