…Says 90 Days Too Long For Such Busy Route
The Vice Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 23, 2019 general election, Peter Obi has expressed concern at the long period of closure of Enugu International Airport as announced by the Federal Government.
Governors from the South East had earlier written to President Muhammadu Buhari complaining about the impromptu arrangement and appealed that the repair work starts by October ending to enable them put contingent measures in place.
Obi said that while the repair of the airport is absolutely desirable, such long time for the rehabilitation work for such high traffic airport is going to impact negatively on the economy of the nation.
The former Anambra state Governor said he was even more shocked that flying through the Airport on Monday and Tuesday, there was no sign of contractor mobilization to sight before announcing the closure.
He said in a statement from his media office that when he heard of indefinite closure and later 90 days he made inquiries from technical experts who said that repair for such busy route could be handled within four weeks.
According to Obi, “the strategic importance of Enugu airport to the geo-political zone and indeed the entire country for one of the busiest airports in the country demands that there should be speedy approach to the repair”.
“Contract signing and necessary mobilization and deployment of all necessary logistics would have been visible days before the announcement of closure to show the seriousness and to appreciate the importance of the route.
“We need to see the level of deployment on ground before making the closure public, moreover my inquiries from technical experts show that the project can be finished and delivered with one month.”
He then appealed to the Federal government to quickly facilitate the urgency of the work because of the critical importance of the airport to the socio economic development of the area.