Protest Trails Relocation Of Fire, Truck Maintenance Centre Project From Katsina

A group known as Hope Arewa Development Initiative (HADI) has rejected the alleged move to relocate the establishment of the Fire and Truck Maintenance and Refurbishment Centre Project from Katsina.

HADI said it has uncovered a "subterranean and obnoxious" plot by AVSATEL Communications Limited, seeking the relocation of the federal government-awarded project's site outside of the Northwestern state.

The group in a statement signed by its national coordinator, Adamu Mohammed, yesterday, said the reckless action, though yet to be executed, is one that brazenly assaults the collective intelligence of teeming Katsina citizens and residents alike.

"In an official correspondence to Chief Festus Keyamo, SAN, the minister of aviation and airspace development, which was dated 4th December, 2023, one Mag. Georg Eder, the Managing Director/CEO of AVSATEL Communications Limited, sought the Minister's consent to relocate the establishment  of the Fire  and Truck Maintenance  and Refurbishment Centre  project in Katsina, with the most comical explanation ever.

"For the benefit of hindsight, AVSATEL Communications, on 7th December 2022, was awarded the contract to supply the machinery and tools referenced in the title of this statement, at the Umaru Yar’Adua International Airport.

"Beyond the contract award, the management of AVSATEL in their letter to the Aviation Minister also informed him that they have since accepted the contract and also, signed the necessary contractual agreement," the statement said.

It said, apart from that, AVSATEL Communications' managing director assured that they will comply with all conditions as stipulated in the agreements and appealed to Keyamo to honour the groundbreaking inauguration of the project in Katsina.

"Curiously however, the CEO of AVSATEL, in their letter then said, '...by being aware of our responsibility to create a long-lasting facility in Nigeria even under presently prevailing economic conditions, we may humbly propose to consider a relocation to the site, which satisfies the demand and supply situation in an economically viable way'.

"It further noted that having the project site either in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, or any part of the South is more 'promising'.

Though, the firm gave seven 'good reasons' why it is proposing a change in the project site from Katsina, it is apt to mention that the 'grounds' may not be tenable, to be brutally candid.

"Indeed, the experts and aviation professionals who may have been involved in the decision of the federal government to site the project in Katsina State (in the first place), were not ignorant of the drawbacks it could have posed thereafter, which AVSATEL Communications 'extensively' highlighted in its letter to Chief Keyamo,” he said.