Ekiti justifies needs for airport

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*Clearing of the proposed site of Ekiti Airport.

NIGERIA: EKITI State government has justified reasons why it decided to build an airport.

The Commissioner for Works, Mr. Kayode Oso, said that the airport would not only open up the state, but would boost its economic activities.

Not only that, the commissioner also said that the airport would benefit the workers, students coming to study at the various higher institutions in the state, and above all create employment for the youths.

Oso spoke at the clearing of the site for the airport at Aso Ayegunle

near Ado Ekiti, where he led the team from the Ministry of Works with no fewer than five bulldozers deployed for the exercise.

The move was in line with the promise by the Governor, Bashorun Ayo Fayose, which he made at a meeting with some stakeholders in his office that all road contractors in the state would be asked to lend the state at least a bulldozer for a month at the site.

Speaking with newsmen at the site, Oso explained how a committee was put in place about a month earlier by Fayose to look into the possibility of achieving the administration’s desire to have an airport in Ekiti at the shortest possible time.

Oso said the committee within the period reviewed processes that have been on for more than three years, met with consultants and professionals in the aviation sector, and liase with relevant authorities to get the required approval for kick off, the Special Assistant to the Governor on Public Communications and New Media, Mr. Lere Olayinka, said in a release.

The commissioner said that enumerators had commenced crop enumeration to ascertain the cost implication and determine appropriate compensation to farm owners.

Oso, according to Olayinka, expressed optimism that the ministry would finish the clearing of the 4000 hectares of land spanning Ado-Ijan-Igbemo-Ago and Afao Ekiti within the next two months after which the official flag off will be performed by Fayose.