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FAAN allays fears of blackout at Lagos airport

By BusinessNews Staff on February 26, 2015

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria has denied a report making the rounds that it is indebted to a power distribution company.

It also said there was no plan by the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company to cut electricity supply to the Muritala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos due to the rumoured debt.

FAAN said the report was unfounded and described it as a cheap blackmail, which it claimed must have been masterminded by some companies owing the authority.

The General Manager, Corporate Communications, FAAN, Mr. Yakubu Dati, told our correspondent that the authority was not indebted to the Ikeja Distribution Company for power supplied to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, as alleged.

He explained that the airport authority would continue to carry out its financial obligation to the power distribution company to enable it to serve its teeming clients at the airport, which required power supply for seamless passenger, cargo and other operations.

Dati also said the report that the power company was planning to cut the supply of electricity to the airport was not true and urged users of the airport and other stakeholders to ignore such information.

He said, “There is no planned blackout at the airport. FAAN is not owing Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company. People who are spreading such rumour of blackout at the airport are embarking on cheap blackmail. They are going under the radar to pull FAAN down. As service provider, we pay for the services rendered to us by the power company.

“FAAN has over the years maintained good relationship with the power and distribution company for regular supply of power to the airport, and I am certain that this blackmail is coming from debtor contractors, which want to distract FAAN.”

The spokesperson for the IKEDC, Mr. Pekun Adeyanju, confirmed to our correspondent on Tuesday that FAAN was not indebted to the company.

He said, “FAAN is not owing the IKEDC; I was surprised to hear the report on the radio, and it is funny, I had to confirm from the business manager and he confirmed that FAAN was not owing. I do not know where people got the report from.”

Meanwhile, FAAN has reiterated its call on debtors to pay up what they owe the authority or else their names will be published in major newspapers.

The authority had last week said that it would publish the list of its debtors across the Nigeria airports, adding that it was being forced to take this step owing to the huge debts it was being owed.

The authority said, “FAAN wishes to notify all its debtors, including airlines, concessionaires and other service providers, at all Nigerian airports that the authority will soon publish a list of such debtors in major Nigerian newspapers as a prelude to other measures designed to help the authority to recover all its outstanding debts.

“All affected customers of the authority are hereby advised to approach the authority’s Debt Recovery Department at its headquarters, or airport managers across the country with relevant documents for reconciliation of accounts with the authority.”

It explained that the services of the authority could be affected by the mounting debts it was being owned, adding that it was essential for the debtors to clear their debts.

“The Authority is constrained to take this measure because the level of indebtedness to the authority may soon begin to take a toll on its services which should not be allowed to happen, in the overall interest of the safety and security at airports,” he said.

He condemned the situation where most of its customers deliberately refused to pay their charges/fees long after FAAN had rendered them statutory services.

[Punch]

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