The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria ( FAAN) has explained reasons behind relocating it’s headquarters from Abuja to Lagos.
FAAN in a statement signed by its Director, Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Obiageli Orah said the relocation became necessary as there were no enough office spaces in Abuja to accommodate it’s personnel.
FAAN noted that following wide consultations by its new management with stakeholders, which involved the Unions, it was agreed that relocation to Lagos was in the best interest of the Authority and the country for now.
According to FAAN, those affected by the decision to move the headquarters to Abuja have since returned to Lagos as the decision in the first instance was ill-advised.
The Authority said it has no single building in Abuja to accommodate all staff at once.
Having returned to Lagos, the Authority said it would be liable to pay the returnees Duty Tour Allowance, DTA because technically they were working out of station as their official posting was to Abuja.
It said the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo decided to stop the waste of public resources and rip-off on the public purse, thus the directive to relocate to Lagos.
FAAN, however, said the other option left to it was to abandon the old headquarters building in Lagos to rot away and to use its scarce resources to rent an office space in Abuja for millions of Naira of public money when more than sixty percent of its activities are in Lagos given the huge passenger volume of the Lagos airports.
It said the stakeholders and the Minister decided against the above option and to save the country the waste.
According to FAAN the Minister has rolled out plans to get concessionaires to build befitting offices for the Authority in Lagos and Abuja, saying until this is done, the Authority will continue to manage its old building in Lagos that can accommodate all its directors and senior officials for now.
It noted that Abuja continues to have full operational offices saying the Authority has not scaled down operations in Abuja adding that what has taken place was a technical decision of where the Authority has its ‘corporate headquarters’ that has been taken without affecting the structure of operations as they are for now in both cities.
The Authority said in the near future, when befitting corporate buildings have been built in both Lagos and Abuja, a final decision will be taken as to the location of the permanent headquarters, depending on the exigencies of the time.
