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FAAN, Bicourtney Rift Deepens

By on November 5, 2012

General Aviation Terminal, MMIA

The disagreement between the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and its concessionaire Bicourtney Aviation Services Limited has continued to deepen as allegations and counter-allegations continue to be bandied about by the two entities.

The disagreement continues despite the fact that the matter is still in the courts as Bicourtney has accused FAAN of failing to respect the ruling of the judiciary concerning aspects of the case.

FAAN’s General Manager, Corporate Communications, Mr. Yakubu Dati said in a statement that the newly refurbished General Aviation Terminal at the old domestic airport was not concessioned to Bicourtney. He also said that the tenure of the concessionary agreement for the terminals concessioned to Bicourtney was 12 years and not 36 years.

The statement read, “The attention of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria has been drawn to recent statements in the media credited to the spokesperson of Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited to the effect that the General Aviation Terminal of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, was included in the Build, Operate and Transfer concession between the company and the Federal Government.

“The authority is constrained to ask members of the public, especially aviation stakeholders, to discountenance that often bandied claim because it is false, misleading and mischievous, to say the least.

“We observed, with interest, quotations from questionable documents or portions of documents that suited their assertion about the duration of the BOT and government’s directive for the so-called takeover of the GAT.

“We consider this unfortunate because Bi-Courtney knows that the only authentic document on the agreement limits the duration of the concession to 12 years and that the area of land occupied by the GAT is clearly outside the area of land granted Bi-Courtney for the concession. These facts have been stated for the umpteenth time.”

Bicourtney spokesman Steve Omolale-Ajulo dismissed the claims by FAAN as false and illegal.

HE said, “By insisting that GAT is not Bi-Courtney’s and that our concession tenure is 12 years despite court orders to that effect, they have further shown how lawless they are and their disdain for the judiciary.

“They should allow the Supreme Court hear their appeal over the concession agreement they signed with us instead of putting forward shallow and irrational arguments. GAT is ours and will continue to be until they are able to overturn the appellate court judgement.”