Five days after the inauguration of the Ekiti State Allied Cargo International Airport, key players have continued to raise questions on the safety status of the airport vis-a-vis its certification status.
Questions have also been asked as to why the immediate past government of the state was so much in a hurry to inaugurate an uncompleted project and why the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, would accept the commissioning of such an airport.
The cargo airport project, which was started by the former governor, Ayodele Fayose, and taken over by the immediate past administration of Governor Kayode Fayemi, was inaugurated for public use after an Air Force aircraft landed at the airport.
Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, who performed the inauguration, was among the dignitaries onboard the military aircraft which took off from Abuja and landed at the Ekiti Cargo Airport.
The inauguration of the airport, which became a reality 10 years after the idea was first mooted, came at the end of the tenure of former Governor Fayemi.
However, the manner the inauguration of the airport was conducted by the state government has elicited reactions from key players across the sector who doubted if the airport had been duly certified for operations by the statutory aviation agencies saddled with the responsibility of certifying a newly built airport for operations.
According to the stakeholders, flight operations made into the cargo airport by a military aircraft instead of a cargo plane raised the question about the certification of the airport which they argued made it impossible for a commercial cargo flight to have been used to commission the airport during the inauguration.
The stakeholders argued that for the regulatory agencies’ officials to be absent at the inauguration raised the doubt about the completion of the airport before the rush to inaugurate it.
While some defended that for the Minister to have inaugurated the cargo airport only pointed to the fact that the facilities at the airport were safe, secured and in total compliance with all requirements fit for operations, others have expressed reservations about the events surrounding the airport inauguration.
Some of the stakeholders who faulted the use of a military plane to commission the airport wondered if the airport had actually been certified by the NCAA.
Among the questions being raised include if the airport was certified by the NCAA; if the airport commissioning did not require certification and the presence of the certification authority; and why it was a military aircraft that was used as a test case for the commissioning of a cargo airport of Ekiti State.
Another critical question being asked is if the airport had adequate operating insurance that would support commercial operations.
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