The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria has disclosed that it relocated its corporate headquarters from Abuja to Lagos to cut costs.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, FAAN’s spokeswoman, Obiageli Orah, made this known in a statement.
The statement noted that the Aviation Minister, Festus Kayamo ordered the relocation to stop the waste of public resources and rip-off of the public purse.
The FAAN management and stakeholders, which also involved the unions, justified the relocation, stressing that the action was in the best interest of the authority and the country for now.
FAAN said, “Those affected by the decision to move the headquarters to Abuja have since returned to Lagos as there is no office space for them in Abuja. It was ill-advised in the first place to move the headquarters to Abuja when there was no single FAAN building in Abuja to accommodate all of them at once.
“Having returned to Lagos, the Authority will be liable to pay them DTA because technically they are working out of station as their official posting is to Abuja,” said FAAN.
It noted that more than 60 per cent of the FAAN activities were in Lagos, given the huge passenger volume of the Lagos airports.
“The minister has rolled out plans to get concessionaires to build befitting offices for the Authority in Lagos and Abuja. Until that is done, the authority will continue to manage its old building in Lagos that can accommodate all its directors and senior officials for now,” added the statement.
FAAN also pointed out that Abuja would continue to have full operational offices as the FAAN had not scaled down operations in Abuja one bit.
“It is just the technical decision of where the authority has its ‘corporate headquarters’ that has been taken without affecting the structure of operations as they are for now in both cities.
“In the near future, when befitting corporate buildings have been built for the authority in both Lagos and Abuja, a final decision will be taken as to the location of the permanent headquarters,” the agency stated.
