President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima will henceforth pay the required fees at tollgates whenever they use the nation’s airports. The order comes from the president following a revelation that at least 82 percent of airport tollgate revenue is lost through non-paying VIP.
At the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Tuesday, the president approved that no one should be exempted from paying tollgate fees at the airport.
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The approval was made following a memorandum presented to the council by the minister of aviation, Festus Keyamo, who argued that the government was losing over 82 percent of the revenue it should have earned from the e-tags that provide access to the tollgates.
He explained that the memoranda had initially prescribed an exemption for only the president and the vice president before Tinubu overruled and directed that both of them should be included among those that must pay.
Keyamo, who disclosed this at the post-FEC media briefing, regretted that Very Important Persons (VIPs) with money who should pay are those that have not been paying, noting that only poor people had been charged for using the tollgates.
