The Nigerian government, according to Festus Keyamo, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, spends N1 billion a year on airline tickets and Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) for Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) executives who fly back and forth from Abuja to Lagos.
In an official statement released on Thursday, Keyamo clarified his remarks on Channels Television on the “N500 million FAAN workers’ DTA.”
He claims that FAAN employees paid N451,058,950.09 for airline tickets and N493,678,620.37 for DTA in 2023.
“When I did my Channels TV interview yesterday, I was not briefed about the amount FAAN spent last year alone on DTA (Duty Tour Allowance) for the principal officers who travelled back and forth from Lagos to Abuja almost daily.
“The amount came up to N493,678,620.37. Aside from the air tickets, which I mentioned amounted to N451,058,950.09.
“So, in total, because of insistence on naming Abuja as the headquarters of FAAN (when there are no offices in Abuja to accommodate all the principal officers), FAAN spent close to N1 billion in one year,” he said.
The minister reportedly refused to back down from the Federal Government’s decision to move FAAN headquarters to Lagos in the face of criticism from some quarters.
Recall that Keyamo declared on January 19, 2023, that the FAAN headquarters will be moving from Abuja to Lagos.
