The early Monday forceful takeover of the tollgate located at the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport by the aviation unions has become messier as the officers of the Police and Air Force have been drafted to the access gate to forestall breakdown of law and order at the number one gateway.
The ongoing fracas is, however, taking its economic toll on both FAAN and the contractor as both sides continue to lose millions of Naira due to conflict of interest from the parties which is preventing the smooth running of the access gate.
Prior to Monday drama, the management and collection of fares at the tollgate were contracted to a private company, I-Cube in the last four years before the contract expired last year.
While FAAN was yet to announce its position on either to renew the contract or not, the unions chased the officials of the contractor away from the tollgate on Monday and paved the way for the workers at the commercial department of FAAN to take over the toll collections on behalf of FAAN.
ALSO READ: DPR seals 10 gas plants, 40 retail outlets in Delta
There was however a new twist as the aviation unions Tuesday chased away the FAAN workers and directly took over toll collection at the access gate.
The decision of the unions to displace the FAAN workers led to confrontations between the two sides on one side and the displaced contractor firm, I-Cube as each side tried to take over the responsibility of managing the money-spinning tollgate.
To prevent any untoward act from the warring parties, security officers were deployed to prevent the interested parties from turning the access gate to a battleground.
The deployment of the uniformed personnel has however restored sanity to the tollgate as motorists and airport users making use of the tollgate have now returned to use it.
The presence of the uniformed personnel has not dissuaded the unions who are insisting that the deployment of the security personnel will not bring back the displaced contractor.
According to the union who declared that the FAAN management and the minister of aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika had earlier been informed of their plans to dislodge the contractor on the excuse that the contract was not in the Favour of FAAN.
The unions consisting of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) had on Monday chased away officials of the I-Cube firm from the tollgate on the ground that the contract had with it expired 2019.
The management of I-Cube had express shock at the drama unfolding stating that the case was already in court. The management of I-Cube had declared that despite the fact that it did not owe FAAN a kobo, that it was never informed by FAAN on any plan to request for an upward review of the contract.
The I-Cube management used to remit N68 million monthly to FAAN before the contract expired last year, an amount the unions and the workers are saying was not enough.
and then