A Northern group, Hope Arewa Development Initiative (HADI) has raised an alarm over alleged plot to relocate the federal government-awarded establishment of Fire and Truck Maintenance and Refurbishment Centre project’s site outside of Katsina State.
The group urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to resist any move against the interests of the people of Katsina.
In a statement released Monday in Abuja by the national coordinator of HADI, Adamu Mohammed, expressed dismay and utter discontentment with the alleged move.
The group described the excuse given by the company as the reason for the proposed relocation of the project site from Kastina as the most comical explanation ever.
The statement said the “reckless action”, though yet to be executed, wass one that brazenly assaults the collective intelligence of teeming Katsina citizens and residents alike.
It, therefore, cautioned the federal government to shun any action that would further polarise citizens and negatively affect the unity, oneness and national integration.
The group recalled an official correspondence to the Minister of Aviation and Airspace Development, Festus Keyamo, which was dated 4th December 2023, one Mag. Georg Eder, the Managing Director/CEO of AVSATEL Communications Limited, allegedly sought the Minister’s consent to relocate the establishment of the Fire and Truck Maintenace and Refurbishment Centre project in Katsina.
According to the Arewa group, the experts and aviation professionals who may have been involved in the decision of the federal government to site the project in Katsina State (in the first place), were not ignorant of the drawbacks it could have posed thereafter, which AVSATEL Communications ‘extensively’ highlighted in its letter to Chief Keyamo.
It noted: “Our attention has been drawn to a subterranean cum obnoxious plot by AVSATEL Communications Limited, seeking the relocation of the federal government-awarded Establishment of Fire and Truck Maintenance and Refurbishment Centre project’s site, outside of Katsina State.”
The group said it would be patriotic and rational for Keyamo to eschew approving AVSATEL Communications’ ‘unfair’ and wicked’ request, for many obvious reasons.
It, therefore, urged AVSATEL Communications Limited to tread with caution, as the company attempted to hoodwink Keyamo and the federal government into taking a rather drastic action.
“Again, Georg Eder, the Managing Director of AVSATEL Communications may be a contractor in the aviation industry, but that does not negate the fact that he is a foreigner who apparently knows only little about Nigeria and its geographical landscape, which Katsina State is part of.
“Indeed, the Katsina State Government, at all times, will continue to support the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and its progressive socio-economic policies and programmes.
“However, we urge it not to fold its arms and remain docile when the noble interests of the good people of Katsina are threatened. Therefore, our initiative rejects the callous move to relocate the siting of the project at any other part of Nigeria, outside its original, beautiful and safe abode – our dear Katsina State and the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua International Airport.”