S’east Govs Seek FG’s Intervention on Enugu Airport

By Christopher Isiguzo in Enugu

The governors of the South-east zone on Sunday lamented the deplorable state of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu and asked for the urgent intervention of the federal government in order to avert impending disaster.

The governors specifically drew the federal government’s attention to the deplorable state of the runway, the runway lights and the tarmac and called on the Minister of State for Aviation to visit the airport for an on-the-spot assessment with the aim of addressing the problems facing the airport.

Briefing newsmen at the end of a closed-door meeting at the Government House, Enugu, the chairman of the forum and governor of Ebonyi State, Chief Dave Umahi, made it clear that the state of facilities at the airport was beginning to make the place unsafe.

“The place is not safe for our people.  The recently installed runway light is not working, a situation where no flight can land at the airport beyond 6:30pm is totally out of order. The aviation minister should quickly visit the place and take care of the situation. There’s also a building around there that was destroyed by wind, ordinarily, it shouldn’t take the federal government more than N15 million to fix it, ” he said.

He said the meeting, which was attended by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State and the host, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi also requested that urgent steps be taken for the reactivation of the cargo section of the airport.

The Forum also received presentation from the South East Region Development Fund (SENDEF), a financial arm of SEREDEC, and urged them to channel all development plans in the South-east region through the secretariat of the Forum.

Governors of Imo and Anambra States,  Rochas Okorocha and Willie Obiano, did not attend the meeting as they are presently in China with the president.