The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, has described the Gateway International Airport as a detour from the ever busy Muritala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos State.
The Attorney General of the Federation made this known in an interview at the Gateway International Airport, shortly after attending the installation of Alhaji Adebola Adegunwa, as the Asiwaju of Ijebuland, affirming that the Airport was of international standard.
He commended the state Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun for his work ethics, eulogising him as a pacesetter, who had brought into governance, great vision and passion.
“It is apparent that he is working. You cannot imagine that this place was like a forest some four, five years ago.
” So, to have done it, brought it up to this taste and standard within a very short time, shows the type of person he is. He is a man of taste, vision and he is a great economist because he knows that the benefits that the state will derive and by extension the generality of people is enormous’’, he said.
Earlier, Governor Abiodun expressed satisfaction with the quality of work done so far at the Airport, adding that his administration had vigorously followed its implementation plan and timeliness to construct the Airport, which he said, was unarguably fast becoming the best Airport in the country.
The governor, who disclosed that approval had been given to begin operations, would also receive a no objection for commercial flights operation to commence in another 30 days.
“We received our approval to begin to operate non-scheduled flights, like I have speculated, which means that non-scheduled flights like private planes can now declare their intention to come to this airport and file their flight plans and land in this airport.
“I am convinced that in another two weeks, we will receive a no objection for commercial flights to commence operations here and it is my desire to ensure that commercial operations indeed commence in another 30 days or thereabout, God willing.
“Like I always say, you can build all roads in the world; anybody can build an highway, but not many administrations can build an airport; an airport connects you from one location to the rest of the world”, he said.