Thisday
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has said that the
General Aviation Terminal (GAT) at the Murtala Muhammed International
Airport, Lagos, was not part of the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT)
concession between Bi-Courtney Limited and the Federal Government.
In a statement signed by the General Manager, Corporate Communication
of FAAN, Yakubu Dati, the agency alleged that there were distortions of
the original documents signed by the Federal Government and Bi-Courtney.
“The authority is constrained to ask members of the public, especially
aviation stakeholders, to discountenance that often bandied claim
because it is false, misleading and mischievous, to say the least. We
observed, with interest, quotations from questionable documents or
portions of documents that suited their assertion about the duration of
the BOT and government’s directive for the so-called takeover of the
GAT,” the agency said.
It stated that whatever documents that would be considered, looking at
the issues between Federal Government and the company would be the “only
authentic document on the agreement limits the duration of the
concession to 12 years and that the area of land occupied by the GAT is
clearly outside the area of land granted Bi-Courtney for the concession.
These facts have been stated for the umpteen time.”
FAAN alleged that “Bi-Courtney is only crying foul now because the
Federal Government has decided that there should be transparency and
fairness in all concession agreements with Federal Government agencies.”
The agency said that it was convenient for Bi-Courtney to deceive
unwary Nigerians into thinking that the MMA Domestic Terminal I (named
MMA2 by Bi-Courtney) controversy would discourage private investors in
the industry but it forgets to add that “ill-motivated, manipulated and
unbelievable concession agreements, skewed a
gainst the interest of the Nigerian people, cannot stand the test of time.”
gainst the interest of the Nigerian people, cannot stand the test of time.”
“No amount of playing to the gallery, twisting the law and facts or appeal to undue sentiment can change this,” FAAN also said.
Reacting to the FAAN’s position, spokesman to Bi-Courtney, Steve
Omolale-Ajulo, said in a statement that by insisting that GAT was not
Bi-Courtney’s and that “our concession tenure of 36 years is 12 years,
despite court orders to that effect, they have further shown how lawless
they are and their disdain for the judiciary. They should allow the
Supreme Court hear their appeal over the concession agreement they
signed with us instead of putting forward shallow and irrational
argument.”
He also said, “We are aware of their grand conspiracy to render MMA2
useless, send over 2000 Nigerians into the job market and also render
our billions of naira investment in MMA2 useless with the building of
GAT. If they so much love Nigerians, they should answer the several
summons of Nigerians’ representatives in d National Assembly to explain
their Ministry’s activities. For now, GAT is ours and will continue to
be until they are able to overturn that appellate court judgment,” the
spokesman added.
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