VIDEO: Raising ₦90bn Runway Cost To ₦532bn Unreasonable — Keyamo

Festus Keyamo, the aviation minister, criticizes a contractor for increasing the cost of building the second runway in Abuja from 90 billion to 532 billion.

The minister, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Hardcopy programme on Friday, said the variation of the contract was outrageous and unreasonable.

He remarked, “As public officers, we must be reasonable because the positions we are held to are those in positions where people expect you to act out of fear of God.”

Therefore, you are seeing a 700% runway increase while someone cannot come and change a contract. What budget do you have for building a new airport? I promised to act with integrity and transparency, and I did so because the original figure was N70 billion but there was N20 billion, I believe, for a reason or two.

“And all of a sudden because you said the dollar changed, the naira value changed, prices increased, and everything else, and you now say N90 billion to N532 billion.” No one will agree, and I rebuffed your request, and I said no.

He claimed the variation was unreasonable, forcing him to reopen the offer.

“I now understand that some letters have arrived today and that they can now do it for a much lower rate, and I asked why why not do so at first?” We are going to look at it”, he said.

Source: Channels TV