FG To Shut Enugu Airport For ‘Security Reasons’

Minister of State for Aviation Hadi Sirika has said the Akanu Ibiam Airport in Enugu will be shut down due to security reasons.

He said this while speaking on Friday at a stakeholders’ forum in Lagos.

Concise News learnt that the minister listed the security challenges at the airport to include bad runway, proximity to a market and the wrong location of the state’s radio mast.

According to him, the challenges pose a great risk to lives, hence the need to shut down the airport.

He appealed to the state government to remove the market and radio masts.

The minister also said the government had contracted Julius Berger to renovate Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos at the project cost of N14bn.

“The Lagos airport was built to handle N200,000 people but today Lagos airport is handling eight million people. So it must collapse. Julius Berger will help give it the new look it requires,” he said.

“The airport generates most of the income, so it is only right we give it facelift it requires.”

He said the new Lagos airport terminal would be completed by the end of the year so some airport operators will be moved to the new terminal.