Ogun cargo airport phase one ready next year – Gov Abiodun

The first phase of agro-cargo airport located at Illisan-Remo in the Ikenne Local Government Area of Ogun State will be ready by May 2022, the state governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, has said.

The governor stated this while on an inspection of the project work, adding that the airport conceived in 2007 had all necessary approvals, including the Environmental Impact Assessment from Aaviation regulatory body, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.

He said, “This project had been conceived since 2007 and all necessary approvals were gotten in 2008. All the Environment Impart Assessment, all other regulatory assessment (requirements) have been met 100 per cent.

“All we have to do was to brush them up to ensure they meet current realities. This was not the decision that was taken for any other reason except that which is objective.”

Governor Abiodun also explained that his administration decided to pursue the project based on the economic development agenda of the government to have a cargo airport that would fully complement the agro-value chain investments and activities in the state.

“When the Senate Committee on Aviation came to visit us, we shared with them the business case for this airport.

“We reminded them that the two airport proposals were not initiated by this administration. I told them that the committee we set up to look into the two airports concluded unequivocally that this location remained the best and most viable location for the airport.

“The entire cargo value chain is on this corridor. We have oil palm, cashew plantations and green house in Sagamu and multinational companies around here. This is the centre where items for export are evaluated and approved for export. So with a cargo airport here, it is very convenient to move them.”

He disclosed that the state decided to bid for the African Development Bank’s Special Processing Zone, where in the bid document, the location was chosen for the AZ Processing Zone.

He said the area was renamed “an airport city”, because, apart from the airport and processing zone, the area has factories that would turn raw materials into finished goods for export.

The governor said it was important for an airport to have access to good road network, adding that the airport was bound by Sagamu-Benin and Lagos-Ibadan expressways, as well as gas pipelines paralleled to the expressways. Governor Abiodun said the airport was sited on 500 hectares of land, adding that work was ongoing on the 2.4-kilometre access road to enable movement of equipment to the site, as well as on the 3.4-kilometre runway.