The Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals has said that the Federal Government should be responsible for the repayment of the $500m Chinese loan obtained from the Exim Bank of China for the construction of new terminals in some parts of the country.
It added that the loan is not for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria to pay.
Financial Street recalled that the funds were taken from China in 2012 for the construction of five new terminals in the country by the former administration.
This was contained in a document signed by the Secretary General, ANAP, Abdulrasaq Saidu, addressed to the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, and made available to newsmen on Sunday in Lagos.
ANAP said that since former minister, Stella Oduah, obtained the $500m loan on behalf of the Federal Government, the government should bear the financial burden.
The group, however, condemned the massive indebtedness to FAAN, by its various clients, adding that the humongous debts were preventing the agency from discharging its duties as entrenched in the Act that set it up.
It reiterated that the various clients of FAAN blatantly refused to honour their agreements – land, shop rents, concessions, Build Operate and Transfer and billboard adverts –with the agency.
The union also observed that there were untapped FAAN revenue points, which shouldn’t have persisted unabated, and called for urgent action by the government to plug these leakages in the system.
The union tasked Sirika to emulate President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive for a forensic audit in Niger Delta Development Commission, not only in FAAN, but in all the parastatals under his supervision.
