TheCable

The federal government has taken over the Sir Ahmadu Bello International Airport in Kebbi.

Abubakar Ladan, the Kebbi state commissioner for works and transport, told journalists on Thursday that the airport had not been sold to any private individual as rumoured.

“There is no iota of truth in the rumour going around that the state government is planning to sell the Sir Ahmadu Bello International Airport to a private individual,” Ladan said.

“All the airports in the country are on the exclusive list. There is no way any state government can convert them as their own or sell them to individuals.”

Ladan explained that the federal government had taken over 10 airports including those of Ekiti, Gombe, Anambra, Nassarawa, Kebbi, Jigawa, Ebonyi and Benue states, among others.

“The aviation sector is on the exclusive list and any state that wants to construct an airport must get approval from the federal government,” he said.

“So, once you construct the airport, you only have the manager, but the technical crew handling the airport is federal government’s staff and those of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

“You do not have the right to regulate the airport. We only agreed to allow the federal government to take over the airport because of management issue and other things.

“It is not the issue of sales; the federal government took over the airport of Kebbi state and we demanded that the amount we used to construct it be refunded to the state.’’

The commissioner said that President Muhammadu Buhari approved the refund in March 2020 and the letter sent to the state said that the president approved the refund of N16 billion to the state government, being the amount spent to construct the airport.