Regional & State News
Enugu Insists on International Airport
By ThisDay
Jul 5, 2004, 18:25

Enugu State Government has lashed out at the Senate Committee Chairman on Aviation, Senator Chris Nshii over his statement that his committee preferred Owerri Airport in place of Enugu to be upgraded into an international airport.

Senator Nshii courted the anger of Enugu Government when he told newsmen last week at Abakaliki that given the facilities already in place at Owerri Airport, it would now take the place of Enugu in the plan to upgrade an airport in the South-east zone to an international status.

But reacting to the statement, Enugu State Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Chief Ayogu Eze, told newsmen at the weekend that the Senate Committee chairman had gone beyond his oversight responsibilities to dabble into a plain Executive matter.

Said he: "The issue of the status of airports in Nigeria is an Executive function. The federal Executive Council has ratified the issue of the status of the Enugu Airport. We have no information that the Council has reversed itself."

Eze therefore insisted that as far as the state government was concerned the plan to upgrade Enugu Airport was still on course, citing the assurance given by Minister of Aviation that his ministry would soon release N3 billion for the project. The Commissioner advised public officers against making utterances capable of heating up the

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