The federal government yesterday ordered contractors handling the remodelling of airports across the country, who failed to deliver their various remodelling projects, to return the funds they collected to government’s purse.
Aviation minister, Chief Osita Chidoka, who gave the
directive, also offered reasons why the planned re-establishment of a national
carrier for Nigeria had not seen the light of day since the liquidation of
Nigeria Airways in 2003.
LEADERSHIP learnt that at the commencement of the
exercise, the minister had taken $88 million from the Bilateral Air Service
Agreements (BASA), deposited in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), with the
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) as one of the signatories to the
account.
A former supervising minister in the sector, Chief Samuel
Ortom, had declared that former aviation minister, Princess Stella Oduah, left
behind N174 billion debts from the remodelling exercise, an allegation Oduah
had not debunked.
Presenting his scorecard as aviation minister in the last
eight months, Chidoka said many of the contractors had nothing to show for the
mobilisation funds and other contract funds they had already collected, and
they must, therefore, refund the monies.
He also noted that, in some cases, the quality of job
done was very poor while in other cases they were uncompleted.
Oduah had commenced the airport remodelling exercise in
2011.
Chidoka explained that on his assumption of office, the
government had set up a committee to look at some of the projects that had been
abandoned, and few weeks later, the committee came up with a report that most
of jobs done by the contractors were substandard.
Chidoka noted that aside the order that they return money
for jobs not done, most of them had been asked to return to site to complete
the projects.
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