In 2007, former Governor Gbenga Daniel conceived the idea of Gateway Agro Cargo Airport at Ilishan-Remo. He was unable to kick-start the project before he left office in 2011.
His successor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, had a different idea for the project. In 2018, he proposed to construct a passenger airport in the Wasimi area of the state. Amosun’s administration started the groundwork for the airport but could not complete it before his tenure ended in 2019.
The current governor of the state, Dapo Abiodun, however, in 2021 reverted to ex-governor Daniel’s planned agro-cargo in Ilishan-Remo, his hometown.
Abiodun and Amosun, who have reportedly not been on speaking terms since the 2019 governorship election, renewed their hostility when the Senate Committee on Aviation, led by Smart Adeyemi ( Kogi West), visited the state to inspect the passenger airport projects.
But while playing host to the Senate Committee on Aviation, in March 2021, Abiodun informed the lawmakers of the plan to continue with the agro cargo airport floated by Daniel.
He said the agro-cargo airport project had a lot of potential.
The state government have refocused the airport to accommodate both passengers and cargo.
However, documents downloaded from the state’s procurement website before it was later deleted from the website showed that over N97.2bn was earmarked for the yet-to-be-completed airport.
Sources familiar with the development said that the money had been spent on the project.
In the document obtained by the sums of N49,678,075,522 and N29,599,563,852 were budgeted separately for the airport.
Meanwhile, the state government had, on three occasions, failed to fulfill its promise to complete the airport and commence flight operations on the facility.
Multiple experts has said that with the current state of the airport, the aerodrome cannot be inaugurated yet.
The former Commandant of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Group Capt John Ojikutu, said that he once advised the state during the government of Gbenga Daniel, adding that “if at all the state wants to site an airport, it should be along Wasinmi or Ota axis where the Amosun-backed airport was sited.”