The National Assembly (NASS) has advised against the planned demolition of private hangars obstructing some of the boarding fingers at the new terminal of the Murtala Mohammed International Airpott, (MMIA) Lagos.
The advice was given by the Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, Honourable Nnolim Nnaji gave the advice at the weekend during a joint oversight inspection tour of the airport by the Senate and House of Representatives committees on Aviation.
Nnaji who spoke on behalf of his colleagues at the apron of the terminal regretted that the obstruction was not taken into consideration during the design and initial construction of the new terminal.
He therefore advised that rather than spend billions of tax payers’ money on compensation such money should be deployed to others projects.
“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,” Nnaji advised.
Also speaking in the same vein, his Senate counterpart, Distinguished Senator,Smart Adeyemi who supported the advice offered by the House Committee Chairman, urged the Managing Director 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 with it.
“We are the representatives of the People and we must be sure that the resources of the country are not unduly waisted. 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 the it was built with borrowed funds and that Lagos airport generates over 60 percent 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.
