Aviation unions have threatened a shutdown of the industry over the plan by the federal government to demolish Lagos headquarters annexes of major aviation agencies- the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
Daily Trust reports that the workers had stated this position on Wednesday ahead of their meeting on Thursday.
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Rising from the meeting, the workers objected to the aviation roadmap promoted by the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, requiring all aviation agencies’ headquarters to relocate to Abuja. The workers called on the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to conduct a comprehensive forensic audit on it.
The unions comprising the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) and the Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP) staged a protest yesterday during a congress held at Freedom Square within the premises of FAAN in Lagos.
General Secretary of NUATE, Comrade Ocheme Aba who read the position of the workers said: “This rush to deliver at all cost has expectedly occasioned suspicion and a plethora of missteps, which if not corrected will spell doom for the aviation industry in Nigeria, and which may prove exceedingly costly to amend in future.”
They also called trade, labour unions and others to join the effort to rescue common patrimony from the grasp of the powers that be in the aviation industry.
On the demolition, Aba said, “We consider that this plan, in the name of the so-called aerotropolis, is ill-intended, ill-advised and wrongly timed. We hereby serve notice that any attempt to demolish any of these buildings at this time will be met with immediate action of cessation of work at all airports in Nigeria accompanied by public demonstrations nationwide.”
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