Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited, operator of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos Terminal II has denied owing the Federal Government any Debt.

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika on Thursday, said the operator of the MMA II owed the Federal Government N14bn.

According to the BASL, the Minister’s statement on the alleged debt is not true. However, it said the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria owed it over N200bn.

In a statement on Thursday night, the spokesperson for the BASL, Mikail Mumuni, said, “On the contrary, it is FAAN that owes Bi-Courtney over N200bn by depriving it of its legitimate earnings over the past 14 years.”

This, he said, arose by FAAN opening and operating the General Aviation Terminal, thus competing with BASL with government money in the running of the domestic terminal in a breach of the concession agreement.

“BASL in line with the dispute resolution process contained in the agreement had an arbitration award in its favour. It also got the judgement of a high court, six Court of Appeal judgements and a Supreme Court judgement, all in its favour and sustained the monetary award,” he said.

Mumuni stressed that the courts ruled that any debt that may be alleged against BASL by FAAN should be deducted from the credit judgement after due verification.

“Their last demand was about N1bn which was promptly responded to by BASL, stating categorically that there was no such debt.”

Mumuni added, “We believe that minister was not properly briefed by FAAN as we also pay our electricity bills as and when due.

“We equally provide elaborate security at the terminal which has continued to attract commendation from stakeholders.”

He said BASL was a law-abiding company and would continue to obey the laws of the land while providing exceptional services at its facilities.