MRO Sited In Lagos Because Of Difficulties Securing Land In South-East – Allen Onyema

LAGOS, NIGERIA – The Chairman of Air Peace airline, Chief Allen Onyema, has accused Ndigbo of being resistant to development of their territory, in the south east.

Onyema’s allegation came after an allegation by certain Igbo people that he (Onyema) left the South East to situate a multi million dollars Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility in Lagos instead of the South East.

Onyema washed his hands off the allegation, stating that it were the same Igbo people who never wanted to make land available for construction of the facility in either Enugu or Anambra.

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, recently, flagged off the commencement of the construction of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos, which sparked the allegation against Onyema.

When the project is completed, Nigerian airlines, the presidential fleet, and the Nigeria Air Force fleet would no more ferry their aircraft to overseas facilities for major checks, which gulps a lot of foreign exchange.

The facility will save Nigerian domestic carriers about N360 billion worth of foreign exchange annually, as Air Peace alone spends about N180 billion on maintenance in one year.

The facility will also create approximately 50,000 jobs and will be situated on a vast 34,000 square meter land at the Lagos airport.

The MRO will also attract airlines from West and Central Africa, other parts of the world to bring their aircraft to be maintained here in Nigeria and thus bring in foreign exchange because such facility is in high demand all over the world.

Reacting to the accusation against him, Onyema said that he made every effort to site the project in the South East, but was agreed to buy any land for the project that is taking 34,000 square meters of land.

He rejected the accusations by citizens of the South-East that he neglected his home base in citing the billion-naira MRO at Lagos Airport instead of Enugu or Anambra Airports.

He said that Air Peace was frustrated out of its original intention to site the project at Enugu Airport after approval by the Enugu State Government and investment of millions.

Onyema said, “On the Enugu thing, please check some news stories during the government of Governor Ugwuanyi. I visited the state officially several times, held meetings with the governor and his cabinet on my intention to be given land to build this MRO that, by God’s grace, will become the biggest in Africa on completion.

“Our intentions were announced. In fairness, the Governor truly wanted. However, the usual intrigues and selfish interests from unknown others thwarted our intentions. No one gave us the land. Some families started claiming ownership of some lands anticipated to be given to us. Airport land! The conflicts started. All my shuttles to Enugu came to nothing. I was pained.

“At the Anambra Airport, I paid for land for the MRO facility. I paid over N100m for land there. The next thing was some community and families warning me that the land at the airport belonged to them. That the state government had no right to even build the airport without their permission!

“I moved on. The land is still there. I believe the time has come for Igbos to look in the mirror and see who their true enemies are. When they gaze into the mirror, the real enemy will be staring back at them. Let us, as a people, undertake self-examination before we start complaining!

“We moan a lot about everything, blaming everyone, every other tribe, except ourselves! We are destroying the Igbo land ourselves while blaming others.”