The Minister for Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has said that the total cost incurred as Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) for FAAN officers who travelled back and forth from Abuja to Lagos is nearly N1 billion annually.
Keyamo, who made this statement on Thursday, had previously said in an interview with Channels TV that the expenses incurred by the federal government for FAAN is about N500 million yearly.
However, he later said that he had not yet been briefed the expenses for last year when he gave the interview on Channels TV.
He noted that, having received a detailed briefing of the expenses, the total cost for the year 2023 was about N1 billion.
- “When I did my Channels TV interview yesterday, I had not been briefed as to the amount FAAN spent last year alone on DTA (Duty Tour Allowance) for the principal officers who travelled back and forth from Lagos to Abuja almost on a daily basis. The amount came up to N493,678,620.37. This is aside from the air tickets which I mentioned that amounted to N451, 058,950.09.
- “So, in total, because of insistence on naming Abuja as the headquarters of FAAN (when there are no offices in Abuja to accommodate all the principal officers) FAAN spent close to N1 billion in one year,” he said.
The Minister, who spoke in an interview yesterday, emphasized that there is no going back on the relocation of the headquarters of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) from Abuja to Lagos.
According to Keyamo, the headquarters of one of the seven aviation agencies in the country is being moved from Abuja to Lagos.
What you should know
- There have been backlash from some political elites who believed the plan to move the headquarters of FAAN from Abuja to Lagos will jettison the status of Abuja as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
- The Chief Whip of the Senate, Ali Ndume, for instance, told reporters that there will “political consequences” if the headquarters is moved to Lagos.
- However, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, said the plan was initiated by him and not the president, adding that his ministry has no plan to reverse the decision to relocate.
- According to Keyamo, the decision is to help promote economic and operational efficiencies and save operating cost spent by the federal government in logistics by the officers of FAAN.
