The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has issued the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) 48 hours to relocate its workers at the staff quarters of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos in order to demolish a four-block of flats in the area.
FAAN said that the relocation was necessary in order to give room for the expansion of its ongoing construction of the new terminal at the airport.
A letter dated September 13, 2019 and personally signed by the Managing Director of FAAN, Capt. Rabiu Yadudu with the reference number: FAAN/HQ/HD/1BE/VOL.BD/90 addressed to the Managing Director of NAMA, said that the issue had been lingering since January 2019.
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FAAN said that it was revisiting the issue in the interest of completing the ongoing new terminal project on time, adding that the demolition of the four blocks would ease the stress experienced by passengers using the airport due to traffic congestion at peak hours.
According to a letter, which was made exclusively available to SaharaReporters recalled that the structures belonging to FAAN at the transit camp of Lagos airport were demolished in February, 2019 to give away for the new apron construction except for the four bloks belonging to FAAN and NAMA. 
Yadudu in the letter to NAMA MD also recalled that in February 2019, a letter was written to NAMA explaining the importance of the plan to demolish the remaining four-building, but there had been no response from NAMA’s agency till date.
In his words, “I would, therefore, like to reiterate that the piece of land occupied by the four buildings is proposed for the construction of aircraft ground handling equipment parking. The said land is therefore needed for the stockpiling of construction materials for the apron works instead of the terminal access approach.”
“Consequently, upon the unavailability of the transit camp land, the contractor was forced to stockpile laterite on the available piece of land opposite the ever-busy existing international terminal building. The stockpiling of the laterite at the traffic bottleneck at peak periods.”
However, the planned demolition of the flats did not go down well with the staff of NAMA who are the occupants.
Some of them said that there was no alternative accommodation provided for them, even as rent was deducted from their salaries monthly.
As of the time of filing this report, the management of NAMA had yet to respond to the letter from FAAN, but it was gathered that the flats might be demolished tomorrow, Friday.
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