By Adelola Amihere
Minister of Aviation Hadi Sirika has said that the restriction in international flights was not on purpose but to ensure that it was safe to resume as government is just as concerned adding that Nigerians should blame the Covid-19 Pandemic and not him or any Minister for the restriction.
According to him, the reopening of the airport is not just an Aviation function as it has to do with health in the interest of the general public.
Speaking at the Presidential Task Force Daily briefing yesterday in Abuja, Sirika said, “we in the civil aviation want to open the open the airport like yesterday because we are bleeding. We are sacking our workers, we can’t pay salaries, we have to move and fly from one point to the other and pay airfares for us to pay salaries So we really want to open.
“But we can’t open alone there are others within our areas of operations they include the police, immigration, custom, hotels among others so the PTF on COVID-19 had set up a technical committee to come up with a date that everyone will be comfortable with to open our airport.
” These could be in weeks or months, so we will appeal to Nigerians not to blame anybody not the PTF Chairman or Minister of health or me, put it on COVID-19. We are doing everything possible to open”.
He further stated that “we feel your pain, we know these closure of airport has affected families and friends. It has denied people access to health facilities, abroad, schools and so on. We know how you feel so it is not on purpose and government is concern about this.
