Policemen and Nigeria Air Force (NAF) personnel were drafted on Tuesday to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Access Toll Gate in Ikeja to avert a crisis.
This followed a tussle for the control of the revenue point between aviation union workers and workers of a concessionaire, I CUBE West Africa.
The take-over of the toll gate followed Monday’s dislodging of the concessionaire’s workers by aviation unions at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
The unionists asked workers of FAAN’s Commercial Department to take over the revenue point.
The security officers were deployed to the area following the clash between FAAN workers, aviation unions and the contractor handling the collection of tolls at the access gate.
The deployment has restored sanity to the area and brought a sigh of relief to motorists using the toll gate as they now pass freely without paying tolls.
Both FAAN and the concessionaire have been losing revenue.
Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP) Secretary General Abdulrazak Saidu said the take-over of the gate by security officers would not stop the union members’ demand that the contractor be asked to go since his contract had expired.
He said: “The Minister of Aviation and the Management of FAAN are aware of the action we took yesterday (Monday) because we had told them in a meeting last year that we did not want the contractor again. The money he is paying is too small. We want to review it.
“The unions will meet this morning (yesterday). We cannot allow concessionaires to continue to milk FAAN dry with the token they pay as concession agreement.”
The unions, namely: ANAP, National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) and Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), on Tuesday chased away the contractor’s workers handling toll collections, Integrated Intelligent Imaging West Africa Limited (ICUBE), for the alleged contract expiration in since February 2019.
ICUBE’s Toll Collection Manager Toluwaleke Abajingin expressed shock over the access gate take-over on Monday by the workers and their union leaders.
He told reporters that a suit on the dispute had been filed in a court among Rosepine Integrated Limited, FAAN and ICUBE.
The manager said ICUBE had paid FAAN up to date and was not informed about any upward review of the contract or otherwise.
