Stakeholders in the air transport sector, Monday, voiced concerns about the construction of a second runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, saying if convinced that the contractor is overcharging Nigeria, he should be blacklisted.
Their views are made known amid revelation that the contractor handling the second runway has demanded an increase in the contract sum from N90 billion to N532 billion.
During the budget defence session with the joint Aviation Committee of the National Assembly, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo, said: “After N3.4 billion post-contract consultancy fee was paid to the contractor handling the project in May 2023, N90 billion was later approved in the same year for the whole contract out of which N30 billion was released.
“The contractor, after receiving the N30 billion, joined the Federal Capital Territory Administration to pay compensations to some settlers on land and then left the site. All efforts made thereafter to get the contractor back to site proved abortive on the grounds of unacceptable contract variation being demanded.
“The contractor in question is demanding a contract variation of N532 billion from the original sum of N90 billion. To us in the ministry, the said variation is nothing but fraud leaving us with no option than to cancel the contract and call for fresh bids.”
But sharing their thoughts on the development on The Morning Brief, a Channels TV programme, Managing Director of Aero Contractors, Capt Ado Sanusi; and former Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Musa Nuhu, insisted that a second runway was needed at the Abuja airport given the projections for a rise in passenger traffic.
Nuhu, who refused to comment on the contract, said: “On the Abuja runway, all I can say is that a second runway is very important in the capital of Nigeria, with the seat of government. If anything happens, Abuja, with a single runway, is closed. And we cannot afford to have that. We need to have two runways.
“In addition to that, the traffic in Abuja is increasing. For more efficient operations, we need to have two runways. In the next couple of years, the projection is that the Abuja airport’s traffic will be one of the biggest airports with one of the most traffic in Nigeria. We need to plan ahead.”
On his part, Sanusi said: “This is not the first time we have built a runway and we are not the first country that is building a runway. Convert the money that the contractor is quoting to dollars. Look at other countries and how much they built their runways. And if the contractor is overcharging Nigeria, blacklist him. We have over 22 airports in the country, for goodness sake. Why are we saying that a contractor has charged more? We have engineers, we have quantity surveyors, they can go and look at it.”
