The House of Representatives is set to probe the massive money plowed into airport projects by immediate past president Goodluck Jonathan.
The Lower Chamber has flayed the state of airports across the nation, stressing that there was little to show for the huge investment made in the aviation sector by the immediate past administration led by Goodluck Jonathan,
As a result, the House has ordered its Committee on Aviation to probe the N400 billion appropriated for the expansion, modernisation and management of 17 domestic and five international airports by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration.
The mandate of the committee is to ascertain the factors responsible for the embarrassing status of Nigerian airports and report back in two weeks.
The decision of the lawmakers followed the adoption of a motion by Garba Datti (APC, Kaduna), who noted that with the whopping sums injected into the aviation sector for the upgrade of airports, rather than turn out to be symbols of national pride, they have become objects of condemnation.
“Nigerians should be worried about a recent report put together by Cable News Network (CNN), World Airports Survey that rated three of our airports namely; Port Harcourt, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Murtala Mohammad International airports among the 10 worst in the world with Port Harcourt leading the pack," he said.
“I wonder why the Federal Ministry of Aviation, after it obtained a $1 billion Chinese loan to improve facilities such as toilet, conveyor belts, avio bridges buses, software infrastructure and security in general would not live up to it responsibilities."
“It should also be of concern that in the last five years, the National Assembly has appropriated over N400 billion for the expansion, modernisation and management of 17 domestic and five international airports; none of these is yet to be felt.”
The motion was adopted after it was put to a voice vote by the presiding officer, Deputy Speaker Yussuff Lasun.