Airport Runway: Festus Keyamo Opens Talks With Wike Over Compensation, Relocation Of FCT Indigenes

The Federal Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Management has opened talks with the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike over compensation and relocation of Abuja indigenes to pave the way for the construction of the second runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.

Festus Keyamo, the Aviation minister made the disclosure after meeting with Wike.

Keyamo said the first discussion he had with the FCT minister was to jointly work with the FCT Ministry to resolve the issue of the FCT indigenes who need to be compensated and relocated before the construction of the 2nd runway at the Abuja airport can commence in earnest.

The contractors have been mobilised to move to site.

He said, “The second is to work with the Foreign Affairs Ministry to resolve the issue of the resumption of Emirates Airline flights to Dubai/UAE and the related issue of resumption of issuance of Dubai visas to Nigerians.”

In 2022, the project was estimated to gulp N92bn under former President, Muhammadu Buhari.

In May 2023, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved post-contract consultancy amounting to N3.4bn for the construction of the second runway and associated facilities at the Abuja Airport.

The runway is a 4.2KM road. Twelve hectares of land was given by the FCT for the project.

Former Minster of Aviation, Hadi Sirika had said that the project would be completed in May but he failed to deliver the project.