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9 July 2009
Abuja — Workers in the aviation industry in Nigeria have indicated plans to not pay the new charges proposed by managers of the access gate at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.
The concessionaire, I-Cube West Africa Limited said that corporate organisations are to pay N25, 000 annually for their branded vehicles, while the private vehicles of airline personnel and other corporate organisations will attract N15, 000.
Also, officials of statutory aviation agencies as well as military and Para-military organisations that drive their private vehicles will pay an annual charge of N6, 000, while the convoy of ministers, governors, and vehicles of ministries and other organisations will pay annual charges of N10, 000.
For those not on the above categories, hawkers will be selling cards of varied rates from N100, N150, N200 to access the gate.
Managing director of I-Cube West Africa Limited, Moyosola Niran -Oladunni had announced the new charges at a stakeholders meeting held at the international wing of the Lagos airport.
However, players in the industry including the police and the body of foreign airlines vowed to mobilise against the cut throat charges, saying that the industry exists because of their operations.
Representative of the police at the meeting noted that such a decision would pose serious threat to security around the airport in respect of movements of Very Important Persons (VIPs).
The police representative argued that the concessionaire and FAAN cannot just peg a charge on people who use the road without proper consultations, even as he said that VIP movements, which are sometimes not planned for could arise, which will require the roads leading into and out of the airport be cleared without recourse to the procedures of the access toll gate.
A representative of the Airline Operators Committee, insisted that foreign airlines personnel will not pay the new charge regime of N15, 000 pegged for their category because it is 200 hundred percent higher than what they were paying for the stickers hitherto printed by FAAN.
The chief executive officer of I- Cube West Africa, Moyosola Niran -Oladunni explained that a window of 45 days will be created for the operators to understudy the challenges of the new access gate, to get feedback from players on how comfortably the procedure will be.
He also explained that some officials, including Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), as well as the military including the Nigerian Air Force, have been exempted from paying for their official vehicles.
The military personnel that were present at the stakeholders' forum also expressed reservations over the new charges, which they described as arbitrary.
Scores of airport workers also expressed reservations over the N6, 000 charge slammed on them for their private vehicles, insisting that their on duty card which they have been using when FAAN was in charge of the toll gate should serve as a sufficient pass to access the toll gate.
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