Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keyamo has revealed the reasons why the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) headquarters will be moved back to Lagos.
The Federal Government approved the relocation of FAAN from Abuja to Lagos following a memo issued by the Authority’s Managing Director, Olubunmi Kuku on Monday.
Meanwhile, Mr. Keyamo in a statement signed by the Authority’s Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Mrs. Obiageli Orah on Thursday highlighted the grounds for the decision.
According to him, there were wide consultations by the new management of FAAN with stakeholders, which also involved the unions and it was agreed that the resolve was in the best interest of the Authority and the country.
“Those affected by the decision to move the headquarters to Abuja have since returned to Lagos as there is no office space for them in Abuja. It was ill-advised in the first place to move the headquarters to Abuja when there was no single FAAN building in Abuja to accommodate all of them at once.
“Having returned to Lagos, the Authority would be liable to pay them DTA (DUTY TOUR ALLOWANCE) because technically they are working OUT OF STATION as their official posting is to ABUJA. The Minister has decided to stop this waste of public resources and rip-off on the public purse,” he stated.
Minister Keyamo noted that other option open to the Authority was to abandon the old FAAN building in Lagos to rot away and to use its scarce resources to rent an office space in Abuja for millions of naira of public money when in actual fact more than sixty percent of its activities are in Lagos given the huge passenger volume of the Lagos airports.
He disclosed that the stakeholders and the minister decided against that and to save the country this waste.
The minister also stated that there are rolled out plans to get concessionaires to build befitting offices for the Authority in Lagos and Abuja – and until that is done, the Authority will continue to manage its old building in Lagos that can accommodate all its Directors and senior officials for the meantime.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) further explained: “Abuja continues to have full operational offices and the Authority has not scaled down operations in Abuja one bit. It is just the technical decision of where the Authority has its ‘corporate headquarters’ that has been taken without affecting the structure of operations as they are for now in both cities.
“In the near future, when befitting corporate buildings have been built for the Authority in both Lagos and Abuja, a final decision will be taken as to the location of the permanent headquarters, depending on the exigencies of the time.”
He assured members of the public that the Authority will continue to act in the best interest of the public and the country.
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