By Ime Akpan
Lagos
The Ministry of Aviation has denied that funds meant for the execution of projects at various airports in the country had been stalled because the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Jamila Shu’ara, was reluctant to make money available.
The special adviser to the permanent secretary, Mrs. Ori Okojokwu, who reacted to the report that contractors handling work at airports apart from the five new terminals under construction at Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano, Abuja and Enugu airports had abandoned work because of paucity of funds, said it was untrue that Shu’ara was sitting on the project funds.
“That allegation is very unkind. It is not true. Although I am not the spokesman of the ministry but I am telling you that it is not true. Somebody is being mischievous somewhere. That is just the truth,” she said.
Similarly, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) described the report of non-release of funds to contractors as “misleading” and “mischievous”.
FAAN spokesman, Mr. Yakubu Dati, said in a press statement issued in Lagos at the weekend that “the airport remodelling project, designed by the federal government to modernise all airport terminals in the country, in line with international standards and best practices, has not been abandoned.
“The seeming lull in the execution of projects in some of our airports was caused by the late passage of the 2014 budget. As a result release of funds for the projects was delayed. Happily, the 2014 budget has now been passed and we wish to assure the public that work on the projects will be accelerated as soon as fund is released to the affected contractors.
The supervising Minister of Aviation, Dr Samuel Ortom, has also assured Nigerians that work on the remodelling projects will be completed on schedule, during his recent tour of some of the projects across the country.
In a recent interview, Ortom pledged that the projects would be completed saying their completion would improve the viability of the aviation sector.