CLOSURE OF AKANU IBIAM INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT …FAAN Urged to Make Alternative Arrangements for Air Travellers

Some stakeholders from the South East Zone have called on the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria to make alternative arrangements for air travellers, to cushion the effect of the closure of Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.

They made the call while contributing to political watch, a Radio Nigeria Enugu Zonal Political Programme.

One of them, a regular user of the Airport, Mr Cosmos Okolo, faulted the idea of closing the Airport when every other means of transportation in the zone, including federal roads and the railway were in state of comatose and no visible effort by the government to upgrade them.

Mr Okolo who is a legal practitioner maintained that the people of the zone had started incurring huge economic loses and appealed to the Federal Government to urgently address the situation.

Also contributing to the programme, a former Vice President, Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Fidelis Edeh, stated that closing the Airport without specifying the duration of the maintenance and the name of the company handling the project could be viewed as un-seriousness on the part of the Airport Authority.

Comrade Edeh called on the South East Governors and prominent leaders from the zone to engage the Federal Government to ensure quick commencement of work at the Airport and execute quality job.

Callers in the programme expressed worry over possible grounding of the sources of livelihood of people of the zone as a result of the closure of the Airport and called for urgent intervention.
They appealed to people of the South-East in top Government offices to learn to use their positions to attract projects that would be of great value to the zone.

OBINNA OGBUKA