Days after the closure of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja for the repair of its runway, the Federal government has now allowed helicopters to use the airportThe Nation is reporting.
During the six weeks closure, flights into Abuja will be redirected to the Kaduna International Airport.
Minister of State for Aviation Hadi Sirika, said following the advice of the National Security Adviser, helicopters will be allowed to land at the airport while the repair is on-going.
He said: “On the helicopter issue, the National Security Adviser has the constitutional responsibility to advise the President on national security matters.
Within his wisdom, he had earlier on sent out letters banning helicopters operation into the airport.
“But the National Security Adviser has earlier this morning said helicopters will of course continue to fly to Abuja airport from wherever.
“Then the procedure that they will use to approach the airport and the landing spot will be advised accordingly before the end of today (yesterday), which means that helicopters can come into Abuja and out, bearing in mind that within the metropolitan city of Abuja, there are no-fly zones and this is very normal in every country.”
He added that the operations in Kaduna were going on smoothly.
He said: “We are able to do what we said we would do. We are actually working our talk.
We thank Nigerians for understanding with us in time of this period of emergency. We have deployed enough personnel to handle and process passengers in Kaduna.”
The closure of the Abuja airport has attracted a lot of criticism . Some foreign airlines said they will not be using the Kaduna Airport during the period the Abuja airport will be closed.
Some foreign countries have also warned their citizen against using the airport.
They cited insecurity and criminal activities on the Abuja-Kaduna highway.
Last month a German professor was abducted on the highway . His abductors demanded to be paid N60 million before he will be released.
He was released days later. It is not known whether any ransom was paid.
