BENIN CITY- The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has pledged their readiness to partner the Edo State government to improve facilities and safety at the Benin Airport.
The Managing Director of FAAN, Mr. Saleh Dunoma, Chief Executive director of NAMA, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu and the Edo governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki sought the need for the partnership to refurbish the airport after the trio made an inspection tour round the facilities and landspace located inside the Benin Airport on yesterday.
Gov. Obaseki said that the aim of his administration was to effectively utilise assets and resources located within Edo and hence the inspection tour to the Benin airport to assess the potentials of it being operated to boost economic activities in the state.
‘’We have approached the federal Authority to kindly come to our aid and the plan is to first improve the facilities in this airport; ensure that we have the right landing facilities, so that the airport can operate for 24 hours and more airplanes can come in and we see a lot more passengers traffic coming into our state’’, the governor said.
Obaseki said his administration would work with FAAN and NAMA to come out with a plan before the end of the year to ensure that the Airport space was expanded.
He noted hat the airport land encroached on by land developers would be recovered while occupants with genuine C of O would be compensated.
The MD of FAAN Dunoma, acknowledging that it was the responsibility of the authority to improve facilities at the Benin airport noted that assistance from the Edo government was a welcome idea.
He said that ‘’I want to thank the governor for coming to our aid and with his assistance we can do a lot more. We have inspected the facilities here and we would submit a report on what we need to do to improve the safety and facilities here at the Benin Airport’’ he said.
In his remarks, the MD of NAMA, said joint effort was needed to ensure safety standards in the Airport and would collaborate with the Edo government to achieve the feat.
He said’’ we can’t but thank the Edo governor for coming out to show support. The country belongs to all of us, as a component part of the county the governor has demonstrated great leadership saying working together we can move the state forward.
