President Bola Tinubu has approved the exclusion of properties belonging to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria within and around airports from sale to private individuals. For many years, FAAN has held properties within and around airport precincts, originall built to shelter key aviation staff like air traffic controllers, rescue and firefighting personnel, security officers and navigational technicians.
Confirming the decision recently, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo (SAN) disclosed that the Federal Executive Council gave its approval on Wednesday.
FAAN started demolitions of homes in Kano this year amid ownership disputes, stating that the quarters were built mainly for aviation workers and were never properly sold or transferred to third parties.
According to Keyamo, the move will help to protect aviation operations and ensure that key technical staff remain within airport premises for emergency response and operational efficiency.
He revealed that the exclusion applies to all FAAN-owned properties in and around airports nationwide.
“We sought the approval of the FEC to exclude properties owned by the Federal Airports Authority in and around airports in the country from disposal to private individuals by a committee called the Presidential Committee on Properties.
Now, it has been our problem at the airport when people will come and say, because they are owner-occupiers, they own properties within or around the airport meant for very technical staff, such as firefighting staff, AVSEC, and navigational staff.
The airport is an environment where you can have an emergency at any time and, as a result, you need those people to stay within government quarters inside the airport,” he said.
Reiterating the government’s stance, Keyamo noted that BAT was gracious to exclude all of FAAN properties from disposal to private individuals.
He concluded by saying that those who keep insisting they already purchased the properties should go and collect their money from whoever they paid to.
“The President has graciously said we should exclude all of those properties from disposal to private individuals.
I am making this public announcement to people who thought they had bought—or purported to have bought—these properties: we will not give those properties to them.
We told them from the beginning that these properties were originally excluded, but they said they didn’t get any memo to that effect. Now, there is a memo, and we will not concede any of those properties within or around the airport to any private individual,” he added.
