Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo, has flayed a contractor for raising the construction cost of the Abuja second runway from ?90bn To ?532bn.

The minister, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Hardcopy programme on Friday, said the variation of the contract was outrageous and unreasonable.

He said, “As public officers, we must be reasonable because the positions we are kept are positions of trust and positions where people expect you to act with the fear of God.

“So, somebody cannot come and vary a contract and you are seeing like a 700% increase of a runway. How much do you use to build a new airport? That is why I said I will act with honesty and transparency and that’s why I disclosed the figure on the floor that the original figure was N70bn but there was a N20bn, I think for contingency or so.

“And all of a sudden because you said the dollar has changed, the naira value has changed prices have gone up, and all that and now you say N90bn to N532bn. Nobody will accept that and you are pushing it down my throat and I said no.”

He said the variation was unreasonable and so he had to throw the bid open again.

“I understand now that some letters came in today and that they can now do it at a far cheaper rate and I said why don’t you say so initially? We are going to look at it,” he said. (Channels TV)