Aftermath Of Taraba Governor’s Plane Crash, State Government Budget N10 billion To Build New Airport

The story of how Taraba State governor, Danbaba Suntai, narrowly escaped death in his own hands is still generating controversy across the country as to the way most of these governors spend their lives recklessly due to the enormous power they suddenly find on their laps. It was generally argued that the governors in the northern part of the country seem to have discovered a new means of embezzling money from the state coffers through the so-called establishment and construction of airports that only serves them and other dignitaries like them who can afford to charter aircraft that will land on these airports.

What many did not know is that as poor as Taraba State is, it will soon boast of nothing less than two airports if not three. It was reliably gathered that the crash involving the state aviation freak governor has prompted the state to budgeting a whopping sum of N10 billion into the process of constructing a new airport. Information made available to Global News revealed that Suntai’s predecessor Rev. Jolly Nyame, had initially given out the contract for the construction of an airport in the state to the tune of N2.68 billion. The contract which is supposed to see a Korean firm construct airport for the state was, however, stopped when Nyame’s term finished and more money were not forthcoming from the government.

Suntai also corroborated the reason when he said some time ago that he stopped the company when he realized the company did not have the capacity to complete the works which informed the reason PW was invited to complete the airport construction. It was PW, according to the governor, that came up with a cost that is almost N10 billion. This, the governor revealed, was the reason he decided to construct a new one abandoning the previous one which his predecessor had started stating that it was not a standard airport.

Sources disclosed that the crash of the governor’s aircraft has spurred the state into action, which is the reason the work on new airport is set to commence very soon. The state, we learnt, blames the accident on the fact that they are do not have a standard airport as the personal one built by the governor in his home town is seen as substandard with no adequate equipment to guide the governor’s aircraft to safe landing and this is the reason the already purchased equipment for the main airport is planned to be put to use fast to forestall such occurrence in the future.

Though Taraba State government is poor, those in the government care little about channelling state funds into improving the economic situation of the state; rather they would want to go the extra length to fulfil the ambition of their governor who is from a very poor background that he cannot finance his aviation career which forced him into pharmacy, only to go after the dream because of the money put in his care as the governor of the state.

The state and its governor seem not to be the only one involved in such wasteful ventures. Other states such as Niger, Imo, Bauchi, Rivers, Cross-River, Akwa-Ibom, Jigawa and others that have been investing their state funds on such issues.