BEVERLY HILLS, July 05, (THEWILL) – The Senate on Wednesday expressed concern over what it described as the deteriorating state of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, which it described as a looming disaster, if not urgently renovated.
In a motion tagged: “The need for urgent renovation of the facilities and infrastructure of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu”, the Senator representing Enugu North, Chukwuka Utazi urged the Federal Ministry of Aviation and other relevant authorities to immediately repair the damaged parts and renovate decrepit facilities at the airport and other airports in the country.
Utazi stated that this would reduce the dangers to which users of airport facilities in the country are exposed to. Describing the state of the airport, he said debris and wind-blown garbage litter the inside of the buildings, thereby, putting passengers, staff and other users of the airport in danger.
The senator said, “Considering the South-East is the last, among all the geo-political zones to have an international airport, this development is disheartening and would not only expose users of the airport to harm, but also discourage international airlines and other interests from using the airport.
“The current dilapidated state of the facilities and the infrastructure of the airport is a huge disincentive to the use of the airport and endangers the lives of the people who use it, besides being a bad testament to the standard of infrastructure in Nigeria’s critical aviation sector.”
In his contribution, the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who also hails from Enugu, lamented that whenever it rained, flood takes over major parts of the airport.
He added that the runway of the airport, which was upgraded to the status of an international airport, on August 24, 2013, is bad and has, on different occasions, damaged planes.
At the end of the debate, the Senate mandated its Committee on Aviation to investigate the circumstances surrounding the award of contracts for renovation of airports in the country as well as the shoddy jobs that have resulted in the sorry-state of facilities in the nation’s various airports.
