The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, has reacted to what it described as misleading and mischievous reports in some sections of the media alleging that the Airport Remodeling Project has been abandoned because the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Aviation had refused to release funds to contractors handling the project because she did not consider them as priority projects.

“We hereby wish to emphasise that the Airport Remodeling Project, designed by the Federal Government to modernise all airport terminals in the country, in line with international standards and best practices, has not been abandoned. We also consider as uncharitable and malicious, the allegation that the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Aviation, Dr Jamila Shu’ara was ‘sitting on the funds’ meant for a project that she knows President Goodluck Jonathan himself considers top priority in his Transformation Agenda in the aviation industry,” says a statement by Yakubu Dati,coordinating general manager, aviation Parastatals.

He explained that the seeming lull in the execution of the project in some of the airports was caused by the late passage of the 2014 budget as a result which releases for the project were delayed. “Happily, the 2014 budget has now been passed and we wish to assure the public that work on the project will be accelerated as soon as fund is released to the affected contractors.

According to him, Samuel Ortom, supervising minister of Aviation, has also assured Nigerians, during his recent tour of some of the projects across the country, that work on the remodeling project would be completed on schedule.