FG to re-open Akanu Ibiam Airport after COVID -19 lockdown

The Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu State will be re-opened after the end of COVID -19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, says Labour and Employment Minister Chris Ngige.

The airport was shut down almost nine months ago for reconstruction at a cost of N10 billion.

Ngige, while briefing reporters, in Alor, Anambra State at the weekend, also said that  one third of the span of Second Niger Bridge in Onitsha,  had been done while  many stretches of the Enugu-Onitsha and Enugu-Port Harcourt highways had been  reconstructed.

These, according to the former Governor of Anambra State, were parts of the many projects being handled in the Southeast by the present administration of President Mohammadu Buhari

He disclosed that laying of fibreglass and binder course for the regulated runway of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport were ongoing.

He added that the presidential intervention in the airport project included new cargo section, new arrival, departure terminal, medical centre and peri-meter fencing

On the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) lingering strike, Ngige accused the leadership of the union of deceiving its members.

The minister said IPPIS was the main reason ASUU embarked on strike.

He said there was nowhere in the world where employees dictated to their employers how they should be paid.

He recalled that even when the Federal Government conceded to the system adopted by ASUU, its leadership went further to request for 18 months to allow its researchers work on the same system.

“ASUU leadership should go and tell it’s members the whole truth between it and the Federal Government” Ngige said. (The Nation)