Thursday, December 01, 2016

Senate c’ttee opposes sale of airports.



The plans of the Federal Government to kick start the concession processes of four major airports in Nigeria could be heading for the rocks as the Senate has threatened to halt the plans until all the crisis surrounding past concession ventures entered into between government and private sector and individuals in the aviation sector are resolved.

Members of the Senate Committee on Privatisation has also threatened that the upper legislative chamber will give zero allocation to the aviation sector because government cannot continue to put it’s money into ventures that the private sector can successfully manage.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Privatisation, Senator Ben Murray Bruce, who spoke after a tour of the Murtala Muhammad Airport Terminal Two (MMA2) in Lagos yesterday condemned the manner in which the agreement entered into between the Federal Government through the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and Bi-Courtney Limited has enmeshed in endless controversies.

Senator Bruce described as unacceptable the situation where agreements entered into to manage the facility were not honoured, said the upper legislative house will seek to prosecute those involved in drafting the agreements.
He said, “Any agreement signed by the private sector and government must be honoured. If you don’t want to honour the agreement then all the lawyers and those who participated in the process must be tried for sabotaging the Federal Government of Nigeria. Either you honour the agreement or you prosecute all those who signed the lousy agreement on behalf of the government.

“ I will impress it on my colleague to give zero allocation to them because from l have seen the private sector is able to fix this problem.”
According to him, “Aviation consume billions of naira, if they cannot be privatised, we cannot allow the process to continue unless they solve this problem. You cannot tell me you are going to privatize four more airports while the one you have already concessioned is a disaster. You must fix this one because we want a success story in the sector for the government of President Muhammadu Buhari. We will not allow you to privatise the airports when you cannot tell us the success story of past ventures you entered into”.

He queried further saying, “Why will you concession an airport and then come to government to collect money or ask for money to fund another facility when you have private sector individuals already funding it themselves. It is fundamental issues which make no sense in law or in logic.

Also, a member of the committee, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi said the team will make its finding known to the senate and draw the attention of the senate committee on aviation to the matter.
Managing Director and CEO of Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited, Captain Jari Williams urged the Senate to compel FAAN and the Federal Government to honour the agreement both parties entered into.

He said, “BCL should be allowed to continue the development of MMA2 unhindered as earlier approved, especially with the provision of facilities that include regional operations, hotels among others in order to bring the terminal to world class standard.”

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