Paul Osuyi, Asaba

Private buildings within the perimeter of Asaba Airport in Delta State will be demolished, says Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.

The buildings are considered as nuisance to the operations of aircrafts in the budding airport.

The governor made the declaration during an unscheduled inspection visit to ascertain the level of rehabilitation work going on at the airport.

“We need to determine the perimeter of the airport to know where our land ends, we need to look at the buildings close to the airport if they have relevant approvals and if they have no relevant approvals, the buildings will go down.

“I have asked the Commissioner for Lands and Survey to take inventories for us to take necessary actions. If the owners of the buildings have relevant documents, they will be compensated because, what is foremost on our mind is safety,” he said.

Okowa who lauded the level of work done at the airport, emphasised that the contractor was working hard to beat the five weeks deadline for the reopening of the airport for commercial activities.

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“The contractor is right on course and they will deliver before the deadline, we are concentrating on the runway which must be of international standards, and we are confident that we will get one of the best in the country, I am happy with the pace of work,” he added.

Project Manager of Setraco Nigeria Limited, the contracting firm, Mr. Jihad Yaghi thanked the governor for encouraging them to speed up the delivery of the project, noting that all hands are on deck to complete the job before the set deadline.

Special Project Director, Asaba Airport Project, Austin Ayemidejor who was among those that took the governor and his team round the project site, assured the Governor that the contractor handling the project was working round the clock to deliver the project before the deadline and to specifications.

Governor later inspected two multi-billion naira projects, including one of the storm drainage and the state of the art civil service secretariat complex located at the state capital.

He also expressed satisfaction with the pace of work done on the projects.

At the new secretarial project, Okowa stated, “I visit the site regularly and that shows the level of importance the project is to us, we are committed to executing the project as we believe it will solve a lot of housing needs of our Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).”