The Federal Government has vowed to recover a total of N37bn from airlines still owing various categories of debts.
This is just as the government stated that the ban on Emirates Airlines will continue.
The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, revealed this at this week’s ministerial press briefing organised by the Presidential Communication Team at the presidential villa, Abuja.
Sirika who said airlines owe federal agencies N37 billion also explained that Arik owes between N13 billion and N14 billion.
The minister added that construction firm, Bi-Courtney, owes the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria about N14 billion.
He said the aviation service provider had not repaid any part of that amount in its last 13 years of operations. This, he said, contravenes the existing agreement between it and the government.
Sirika stated that the debt is spread across government agencies including the FAAN, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, among others.
When asked about the disbursement of the N5bn COVID-19 palliative to aviation stakeholders, the minister said it was initially decided that airlines owing aviation parastatals should not benefit but the President wanted to cushion the effect of the pandemic on businesses.
Sirika added, “So, this brings us to the question of the money owed to the parastatals. It is about N37bn that they owe them, especially, Arik, the culprit. I know they owe us about N13bn, N14bn
“If you owe FAAN, you owe the government. Bi-Courtney owes about N14bn as of the last count. It has not paid a single dime since the time he started to run the terminal building.
“And we have not ceased giving him electricity, water, fire cover, and so on and so forth. He hasn’t paid a dime for 13 years. And if we go to shut his doors, the media, of course, and Nigerian people will say we’re killing businesses but he is killing our services too because we have to have that money to provide for that toilet that…