…say contract expired one year ago
Posted by Sade Williams
The three unions at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria ( FAAN), the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) and Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP), on Monday, paralysed activities at the toll gate leading to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA).
The union members, numbering in their hundreds, trooped to the tool gate and dislodged the staff of the Integrated Intelligent Imaging West Africa Limited (ICUBEI-Cube) who had been collecting tolls at the gate since 2008.
The union members claimed that the concessionaire had not been generating the amount agreed upon noting that even their members have been trained to generate more.
“You will recall the Toll gate was concessioned and contract agreement expired last year. Our members employed and trained to work at the access gate have been jobless We the unions met and agreed to picket the operators and put our members back to job”, the three unions said in a joint statement.
Speaking to journalists, one of the union leaders Comrade Abdulrasaq Saidu the general secretary of Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP) who supervised the takeover, said management of access gate remained the sole responsibility of commercial department of FAAN adding that politicians have messed up the system through illegal concession of revenue points at the airports.
Saidu said concession of the access gate was without a review of the contract for more than five years now adding that the traffic of the route has greatly increased since the last exercise was carried out
Saidu alleged that some individuals in FAAN and the aviation ministry have compromised over the access gate saying that government was losing revenue from there.
Also speaking on the matter, the Deputy national president of ATSSSAN, Mrs. Sarah Rimdams said the contract with ICUBE expired in February 2019, adding that the company had been remitting N68m monthly but that commercial department of FAAN had taken over and would ensure that they exceeded the N68m being remitted monthly by ICUBE.
But the Manager of Integrated Intelligent Imaging West Africa (ICUBE) Mr. Toluwaleke Abajingin told journalists that he was surprised to see workers and unions taking over the access gate in the early hours of today.
Mr. Abajingin said the case was in court between one Rosepine Intergrated limited, FAAN and ICUBE adding that as a responsible organization, ICUBE staff did not resist.
He said ICUBE had been paying FAAN up to date and that they were never informed about any upward review of the contract or otherwise.
Abajingin said there was a first right of refusal and FAAN had not communicated to ICUBE on the agreement.
Reacting, the FAAN management through its image maker, Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu, said the ‘issue is strictly a union matter’.
