Senate to summon Sirika over MMA2 agreement .

Chairman, Senate Committee on Privatization, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce,  has revealed that the committee would summon the Minister of State (Aviation), Senator Hadi Sirika to explain why the federal government was not honouring its agreement with Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL).

This is just as Bruce stated that it would be impossible for government to see their plans of concession of four major airports through without completely  solving issues arising from the (Murtala Mohammed Terminal 2) MMA2 concession.

Senator Murray-Bruce made this known after a tour of MMA2 where he indicated that those who signed the agreement with BASL on behalf of the Federal Government should be prosecuted as they have showed gross incompetence.

“If anyone shortchanged government or negotiated badly on behalf of federal government so they can have a good time, they will be prosecuted, We will have to publish them on newspapers and on television, and when we do there will be a crisis. Those people who did a bad deal on behalf of the federal government should be punished, the senator said.

“The main issue  is that we go back and make our findings to the leadership of the  senate and also draw the attention to the committee of aviation so they can add their wisdom on this issue . The most fundamental is fixing this country  thing and to do this I don’t think we should create any avenue for unnecessary losses and wastage of resources.

“ What I have seen in this airport, I have never toured it to see that while you are crowding elsewhere there are whole sections of this airport that are wasting away and you are not honouring the terms of the agreements you have signed, I think that is improper.

“ We will call the minister and ask him, what really are the problems and why are they not complying to the terms of the agreements they signed we will find it out but as I have always said this issue we need to sit down and find solutions it’s not about finding fault we are here to correct and make sure the facilities on ground are used.

Reacting to some issues which he termed as a breach of the concession, managing director of BASL, Captain Jari Williams, stated that FAAN over the past 10 years had consistently failed to comply with several court judgments and recommendations of the arbitration committee, besides others.

According to Williams, this disregard has led to stunted development of BASL including its hotel and conference centre, the proposed monorail, fuel hydrant and a power plant which would have enabled the MMA2 to evolve into a world-class terminal.

“ It is obvious that if such a pioneer PPP (public-private-partnership) concession agreement is not respected and adhered to, massive revenue loss and indebtedness of the concessionaire are bound to happen. The consequence will, of course,  be  the inability to attract credible investors into future PPP arrangements both in aviation and other sectors.”

He further asked the committee to prevail on FAAN to comply with the laws of Nigeria on the court rulings and arbitration proceedings to enable credible concessions thrive.