The House of Representatives Committee on Aviation has asked the Ministry of Aviation to suspend the planned concession of four airports.
The committee took the decision following the failure of the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, to appear before it for the fourth consecutive time.
The committee refused to give audience to the permanent secretary of the ministry, Hassan Musa, who represented the minister.
The chairman of the committee, Nnolim Nnaji, said: “This is about the fourth time we’re fixing this meeting. The committee is not happy that we’ll fix a meeting and the minister will not be available.
“You may recall that in September or thereabout, this committee had interactions with the representatives of the labour unions on this subject matter.
“During the meeting, which was sequel to our earlier intervention over the unions’ strike over the concession, a lot of concerns were raised by the representatives of the labour unions regarding the airports’ concession.
“Among the concerns were the lack of transparency in the exercise, labour issues, the Chinese loans, the legal issues that may arise from the existing concessions and the lack of proper valuation of the present status of the affected airports, among others,” he said.
He said this committee requested that the concession of the four airports be put on hold pending the resolution of the contentious issues raised by the unions and other stakeholders.
He said the decision was to avoid industrial actions that might further cripple the already distressed aviation industry.
