By Shola Adekola | Lagos
One year after the demolition of the Lagos head office of the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), now transformed to the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB), the action has continued to generate criticisms from different stakeholders.
The latest criticism towards the exercise follows the recent expansion in the scope of the bureau which empowers it to now extend its role of accident investigations to other modes of transport which key players argued requires the bureau’s absolute presence in Lagos.
Speaking to Nigerian Tribune, the General Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP), Alhaji Abdulrazaq Saidu, while describing the demolition of the investigation bureau’s head office in Lagos as politically motivated, took a swipe at the Minister of Aviation for going ahead with the demolition when efforts were ongoing then to upgrade the bureau to an intermodal entity.
Sadiu who questioned the Director-General of the bureau, Mr Akin Olateru’s complicity in the development, said, “What is your own job in Abuja when you know that the major bulk of your responsibility is here in Lagos? Why the demolition? The relocation to Abuja is wrong and very fraudulent.”
The labour leader attributed his opposition towards the relocation exercise to the obvious failure of the minister to make alternative accommodation and office arrangements for the affected workers of the bureau before rushing to demolish the office.
He said, “Some of the people they relocated to Abuja are struggling, some sleeping in their cars. There was no accommodation, no offices and you relocated them to Abuja to do what. The staff quarters in Abuja are not enough for the people that are even working in Abuja how much more moving people from Lagos to join them.
“The relocation of AIB is politically motivated and it has set the bureau back knowing well that we were defending the scope of AIB, then what is the reason for saying they should relocate to Abuja. They wasted public funds by demolishing the fine edifice and abandoned the capital intensive accident investigation equipment and gadgets in the building to rot away.”
As at time of filing this report, it has been gathered that the Lagos office workers in the bureau are all working from home due to lack of office space even as the reason given by the minister for demolishing the building was yet to be tackled.
