The stretch of road from the domestic wing to the international wing of the Port Harcourt International Airport which goes further into the airport communities has turned into not only an eyesore but source of threat to airport users. This seems to make a mess of the glittering facilities of the airport commissioned on October 25, 2018 by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Users have continued to express apprehension over the intimidating darkness that envelops the area at night, with attendant attacks by hoodlums and other criminal elements.
No official of the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) in Port Harcourt has been able to accept responsibility for repair of the messy stretch but the road has become a big issue which came to the fore when Turkish Airlines began landing in Port Harcourt two weeks ago.
The Port Harcourt International Airport for years had had both wings at the same spot but rebuilding that started in 2012 as part of the $600m rehabilitation project of four major airports in Nigeria (Lagos, Abuja, Kano and PH) by the Goodluck Jonathan administration successfully relocated the international wing further away from the main airport location.
BDSUNDAY sources said the funding came from China-Exim Bank loan of $500million and another US$100million counterpart fund facility.
The new commissioned international terminal wing has the capability to process about seven million passengers annually, covering a space of approximately 28,000m2 and has 24 check-in-counters and three baggage collection carousels. It also has 12 immigration desks at arrival, 16 immigration desks at departure; four security screening points, four passenger boarding gates and a host of other facilities.
The terminal building contract was awarded in 2012 by the Goodluck Jonathan administrator but the large-scale construction work started in 2014, with the main structures which include a two-storey building, a cargo terminal work, and several ancillaries works, but the Buhari administration said the work stopped at 30 percent stage.
According to the immediate past Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, who presented a welcome address at the commissioning ceremony, the Port Harcourt Airport project was expected to be delivered within a period of two years but was bedeviled with various technical challenges.
Sirika had explained that the current administration had to approve the China Exim Bank loan to complete the project because the Port Harcourt Airport, the third- busiest Airport in the country, was very important to the Nigeria economy, as it served over 1,080,284 passengers in 2017. The old terminal building, he explained, was unable to provide the requirement and space to handle such volume of passengers.
It is not clear if the mess affected the link road or not but for the commissioning ceremony, the road was scrapped and made motorable, only to crash soon after. Officials of FAAN would not confirm it was part of the airport project or if it was abandoned. What is obvious is that the stretch is deplorable and serves as an effective source of embarrassment to the beautiful inside.
Worried by the eyesore, the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, offered to rescue the entire ageing road from the PH-Owerri highway to the international airport at Omagwa.
It is a one lane road that cuts across the international airport residential quarters and the terminal buildings to run into what is known as the airport communities of Ipo, Omademe, Ubima, and the much-celebrated Rising Palm Farms & Estates. Probably because of much use and age, the Port Harcourt International Airport Road, for a very long time now, had become an issue as a result of the increasing pot holes, pools of water, accidents and several robbery operations.
Our Airport Correspondent reports that users of the road have become endangered because of the fatal accidents, kidnapping, and armed robbery operations that have often claimed lives and property on the route.
FAAN, operators of the international airport, had threatened to close the road to public use and cut off the airport communities because of threats posed in the usage by the public.
According to the outgoing Regional Manager at the airport, Ojo Afolabi, who addressed journalists on this, the inhabitants and the terminal buildings were being endangered by the activities of hoodlums along the road. The threat to close the airport road, however, was visited with several protests from the other users especially the airport communities.
Sources disclosed that the communities were bitter and complained of being short-changed in payment of their land; and that their people were not considered in jobs as in other places where there are airports. “All we do here is cleaner and security jobs because every other job recruitment is done in Lagos and we are excluded from the numerous contracts despite the noise pollution and it’s after effect that we suffer”.
The airport communities dared the FAAN and Federal Ministry of Aviation to close the road and cut them off. “They should push us to the wall and see our reaction. This is the only thing most of us enjoy or benefited for this massive land we have donated for this airport,” they protested.
As at the time of filing this report, it is not known if the Federal Government or any of its agencies had at any time, since the commencement of the operations at the airport, re-awarded the road for reconstruction. The road, according to our sources, was designed to be a dual-carriage one but had ended up as a one-lane road and had remained so to date.
Insinuations are heavy that the road was awarded and maybe the funds diverted but a source close to the FAAN’s Public Affairs Department in Port Harcourt denied any knowledge of such.
The main road to the International Airport became a new issue recently, following the commissioning of the international terminal building and the reconstructed local terminal buildings.
Several persons that spoke to our correspondent at the airport deplored the condition of the road, more so, when it is completely dark at night because of the absence of street lights at night. Most of them described it as a new wine in an old bottle.
However, the recent promise by the Rivers State Governor to dualise the road and install the needed street lights had become a welcomed development.
Governor Wike, early this month, while receiving the new Airport Manager/Regional General Manager in the airport, Akinbinu Felix, at the Government House, promised to rebuild the road and the Rivers State Government Lounge at the airport, promising to bring them to standards befitting an International Airport.
Governor Wike did not, however, give the time frame for the projects and the inhabitants, the airport users and the communities were still groaning in darkness and a dangerous road.
He only hinted that he had offered to rebuild the domestic wing but that due to political bad blood, the FG turned the offer down.
Ignatius Chukwu & David Ejiohuo
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