Air Transport Senior Staff Services Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP) and the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), yesterday seized control of the Murtala Muhammed Airport access gate, Lagos.
Following series of meetings between the leadership of the unions and the management of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) over the control of the access gates, the unions took control of the revenue points on Monday, February 3, 2020.
As early as 7am on Monday, February 3, the unions arrived at the access gates and ordered staff of I-cube to vacate the collection points. The action nearly escalated as officers from the Air Force came to the scene and tried to send the union members away so that the staff of I-cube will continue with toll collection.
The unions have been agitating for the management of FAAN to hand over the control of the revenue points back to the commercial department of the agency for a period of at least three months, insisting that they will generate more revenue than what the concessionaire is currently remitting to FAAN. The unions also said that the control of the access points by a concessionaire has rendered many staff of the agency redundant and has also caused a depletion of revenue generated by FAAN.
The deputy national president of ATSSAN, Sarah Rimdams, that the unions had to forcefully take over the access gates because revenue accruing to FAAN was depleting. “The contract FAAN had with the concessionaire expired on February 2019 and one year is enough for any reasonable company to ensure that either renewal or termination is tidied up. The unions just want to secure the revenue that should accrue to the government. We have not started earning the new minimum wage, and we need resources to help us do that. FAAN has more than enough staff to control the gates and they can generate more revenue that what the concessionaire was remitting. For now, we are collecting tolls manually until the concessionaire comes to clear its machines so that we can install ours,” Rimdams said.
The General Secretary of ANAP, Abdulrazaq Saidu, said that the unions has had series of meetings with the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika and the management of FAAN and were told that they (the unions) will take over the running of the access gates. “Before the toll gate was given out to a concessionaire, we told the management that if there is any staff that is stealing money, the person should be disciplined. But because they wanted to get money for their own people, they brought people to take over. After a while, they were not remitting on time and this kept lingering on and it began to affect the day to day running of FAAN. We held meetings with the Minister of Aviation and the MD of FAAN and we told them point blank that we are going to take over this place. We are suspecting conspiracy between the contractor and some people within the system; either in the ministry or FAAN and this must stop. That is why we did what we have done today.”
Reacting to the development, the manager of I-Cube, Leke Abajingi, denied allegations by the unions that they are behind on remittance.
“This morning, the union came in and said that they want to take over the toll gate and the security personnel that were there said that if they want to take over, there should be due process. We didn’t get the concession through the union, we got it through FAAN and we are relating with FAAN. There is a first right of refusal clause in our agreement on how to terminate the contract. It clearly states that FAAN has to discuss with us before any action is taken but we didn’t receive any notification by FAAN and the unions just came in and took over in a way that is not proper.
“We have an 11-year relationship with FAAN and our monthly remittance is up to date. We started remitting N40 million monthly but the amount was later increased to N68 million monthly. As I speak, we haven’t received any notification from FAAN on whether to increase the remittance or leave it as it is. When the unions came this morning to take over, we reached out to FAAN to find out what was happening and they said they were not aware but that they will get back to us.”
The General Manager corporate affairs of FAAN, Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu, when contacted, said the unions acted unilaterally but that the management will meet with all stakeholders to resolves the issue.
