NASS Cautions FAAN Over Hangar Demolition

Honourable Nnolim Nnaji, the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, has advised against the planned demolition of private hangars obstructing some of the boarding fingers at the new terminal of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, (MMIA) Lagos.

Honourable Nnaji gave the advice during a joint oversight inspection tour of the airport by the Senate and House of Representatives committees on Aviation.

He regretted that the obstruction was not taken note of during the initial construction of the new terminal noting that rather than spend billions of taxpayers’ money on compensation, ” FAAN can restrict the use of the affected fingers to narrow-bodied aircraft and deploy the money that would go for compensation to the owners of the facilities to the building of additional terminal”.

The Senate counterpart, Senator, Smart Adeyemi speaking in support of the House Committee Chairman’s position urged the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN), Captain Hamisu Yadudu to submit the cost of demolition and compensation due to the owners of the hangars to the two committees for consideration before going ahead to demolish them.

“We are the representatives of the People and we must be sure that the resources of the country are not unduly wasted. We must weigh the options and if the amount to be paid out as compensation does not make sound economic judgement we will not allow it.” Senator Adeyemi further stated.

He equally stated that the commissioning of the new terminal was long overdue considering that it was built with borrowed funds and that Lagos airport generates over 60 per cent of the authority’s total revenue earnings.

Honourable Nnaji impressed it on the management of the authority to ensure that the new terminal is commissioned as soon as possible to ease off congestion at the airport.