The Federal Government has settled the issue of compensation with the Jiwa community in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to allow the eventual take-off of the delayed second runway project of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.
During a meeting with the community leaders yesterday, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Barrister Festus Keyamo, and his FCT counterpart, Barrister Nyesom Wike, released N825,819,911.43, being the total sum agreed with the community for compensation.
The community leaders had disagreed with the Federal Government’s offer, insisting on N2 billion compensation.
But at Tuesday’s resolution meeting, Keyamo said: “The second runway ought to have been commissioned by now, sometime in June or July 2023. But we haven’t mobilised yet to the site because of unresolved issues of compensation”.
The aviation minister said the issues surrounding compensation, by law, did not concern his ministry.
He said the huge sum the communities demanded was not achievable and that it would have set a bad precedent.
Keyamo expressed optimism that the project would be completed quickly since the parties had reached an amicable resolution.
Also, Wike, who announced the resolutions at the end of the stakeholders’ meeting, said: “I want to identify myself with the communities. If there is anything I can do to make you happy, I will make it alone”.
