Nkechinyere Ewa
Ebonyi state government at the weekend bemoaned activities of fake news purveyors who alleged that the Chuba Okadigbo International Airport, located in Ezza South, has converted into an event center.
The government explained that the airport was never used as an event center; rather, it was for the lifting of over 204 overseas scholarship students who boarded their aircraft and left for other countries.
The commissioner for Aviation and transport technology, Ngozi Obichukwu, warned the fake news paddlers in the state to desist from spreading fake news that the Chuba Okadigbo International Airport was converted into an event center.
The airport has recorded about 22 flight operations from Ebonyi to Abuja and Ebonyi to Lagos, Nigeria, and vis-a-vis and still counting.
Obichukwu described the report of converting the airport into an event center as baseless, unfounded, and falsehoods.
She called on the citizens of the state and foreign and national agencies partnering with the Chuba Okadigbo International Airport to ignore the fake news, adding that it is the handiwork of mischief makers who are hellbent on tarnishing the good work of the state with the intent to satisfy their paymasters.
Obichukwu emphasized that the purpose of holding the flag-off ceremony of the 2024/ 2025 Scholarship scheme at the Chuba Okadigbo International Airport the state governor, Francis Nwifuru, was to enable the overseas scholarship students to board their flight immediately, insisting that there is no way the flag off can take place in a different venue and it won’t affect the students.
She said: “The Chuba Okadigbo International Airport has since December recorded over 22 flight operations, and as I speak with you, we have continued to be on the air, and we can never stop.
“And so, those fake news purveyors who alleged that our airport was converted into an event center are enemies of the state, and they darken counsel without knowledge.
Obichukwu, however, urged the citizens and prominent stakeholders of the SouthEast region to come to the Chuba Okadigbo’s airport to take their flights, assuring them of adequate safety of their lives and properties.