FG assures adequate maintenance of new Lagos airport terminal

The Federal Government has assured adequate maintenance of the newly-completed Terminal 2 of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, gave the assurance on Monday in Lagos, during the inspection of the terminal and its state-of-the art facilities.

“I can assure you that the issue of maintenance, even up to the cleaning of the airport, has been taken up at a very serious level.

“As a matter of fact, we refused to compromise at the beginning when some people came and said we must give the maintenance to local companies.

“What is important in aviation is safety and security and we will ensure we give the maintenance to competent people, best known in the world,’’ he said.

Responding to questions on poor maintenance of government infrastructure, especially the terminal one of the Airport, the minister said the critics were not fair to government about the status of the old terminal.

According to the minister, the terminal was built in 1979 with the capacity to carry 200,000 passengers annually.

“Today the terminal is carrying about eight million passengers per annum and you can imagine the pressure,

“Even in your house, if you have toilets built for 10 people and without no expansion about 200 people are now using the facilities, you can imagine what will happen.

“That is why there is the need for the terminal two which we have completed to complement the terminal one,’’ he said.

The minister disclosed the new terminal two has the capacity to process 14 million passengers annually.