The federal government is toying with the idea of cancelling the proposed construction of a 4.2-kilometre second runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, due to rising contract costs.

Speaking in Abuja, Aviation and Aerospace Minister Festus Keyamo (SAN) said the contractor’s request for N532 billion from the original sum of N90 billion is considered fraudulent, thus leaving the aviation ministry with no option but to cancel the contract and call for fresh bids.

“After a N3.4 billion post-contract consultancy fee was paid to the contractor handling the project in May 2023, N90 billion was later approved in the same year for the whole contract, out of which N30 billion was released.

“The contractor in question is demanding a contract variation of N532 billion from the original sum of N90 billion. To us in the ministry, the said variation is nothing but fraud, leaving us with no option but to cancel the contract and call for fresh bids,” the minister stated.

A top official in the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace told reporters that the federal government may be forced to suspend the contract after the initial payment to contractors.

He added that the contract, awarded to China Civil Engineering and Construction Corporation (CCECC) in 2009 by the administration of the late former President Umaru Yar’Adua, is said to have gulped billions of naira in consultancy fees and compensation payments for land.

The project, initially estimated to gulp N67 billion, was later revised to N92 billion. From 2017 to 2022, there were N65 billion in budgetary allocations for the project, though it could not be ascertained whether the funds were released.

In the 2017 budget, N10 billion was voted for the project, N8 billion in 2018, N13 billion in 2019, N14 billion in 2021, and N20 billion in 2022. On August 29, 2023, the ministry stated that the federal government had paid N825,819,911.43 as compensation to the Jiwa community for the takeoff of the delayed second runway project.