The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved N273,933,143,027 for various contracts in the ministries of Works and Housing, Environment, Transportation, and Police Affairs.
The ministers in charge of the affected ministries announced this while addressing State House Correspondents after the weekly Council meeting which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
For the Ministry of Police Affairs, Council approved N13,321,742,038.83 for group life assurance for the 318,319 officers and men of the Nigeria Police.
Police Affairs Minister Mohammed Maigari Dingyadi said: “Leadway Assurance PLC is the lead underwriter and three others as co-underwriters in the total sum of N13,321,742,038.83. This is going to cover our police population of 318,319 officers and men,” he said.
Works and Housing Minister Babatunde Fashola said Council approved four memoranda, three of which were for various road projects totalling N135,330,473,335.
The minister said the fourth memorandum was raised to intervene in the case of former workers of the defunct Federal Mortgage Finance Limited, whose fate, after the crash of the institution, became neglected.
The minister said his memorandum received the blessing of the council, which approved a N4,774,517,205 pensions and gratuity arrears, to be administered by the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD).
“Needless to reiterate, we made this impassioned appeal to Council today that these people deserve to be treated the way that pensioners of Nigeria Airways and all of those of NITEL had been treated and the amount outstanding as their pensions arrears and gratitude was N4,774,517,205. Essentially on compassionate grounds, Council approved that PTAD should take up this matter, subject to verification, and pay them the money and the monthly pensions to be verified, estimated now at N41,096,700,” he said.
Fashola said work on Section One of the Minna-Zungeru-Tegina-Kontagora highway, which starts from Minna and terminates at Tegina was approved.
“It’s a 94.9-kilometre road. It was approved in favour of a joint Deveco/HMF Construction in the sum of N87.396 billion to be funded, as previously approved last year, under the tax credit scheme,” he said.
The second memorandum, the minister said, was presented on behalf of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA).
“It’s for the award of contract for the construction of the Isheri North Road in Lagos, which connects Ogun State, and it’s an alternative route between Lagos and Ogun to the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. It is 11 kilometres approved in favour of Messrs Acute Options Limited and the contract price is N2,104,483,730.
“The third approval was with respect to an existing contract. Its prices have had to be augmented because of changes in cost of materials, inflation, and variation on prices and also to accommodate changes in the fiscal policy between when the project was first awarded in 2014. Before this administration, at that time, fiscal policy, with respect to VAT, was 5 per cent. Fiscal policy has since changed to 7.5 per cent.
“So, these are some of the reasons that the contract has received an approval for augmentation of an additional N45,829,989,605. That’s the Section One, the section from Sapele to Agbor (in Delta State). The section from Agbor to Ewu is still under review and will come to Council when the procurement for augmentation is complete,” Fashola said.
Also, Environment Minister Mohammed Abdullahi said Council approved the two memoranda he presented totalling N123,493,723,862.
He said: “The first memo is on remediation of simple hydrocarbon impacted sites in Ogoni land in favour of about 35 contractors. In other words, there are about 35 lots for a completion period of 24 months. The cumulative value of the contract is N95,908,284,452.91.
“Then the second memo that touches on the livelihood programme of the Ogoni people is the construction of 132 KV transmission lines (62 kilometres) and 260 MVA power substations for the Phase 1 of the Ogoni power project in Winyakara and Bodo in Ogoni land in favour of Messrs. Enagovot Engineering Limited. It also has a completion period of 12 months. The Ogoni Power Project Phase 1 is approved for N27,585,439,410.13,” he said.
Transportation Minister Mu’azu Sambo said while three of his memoranda were in form of Public/Private Partnership arrangements, one was aimed at optimising operations of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) awarded to Messrs Tenece Professional Services Limited, in the total sum of N1,787,203,792.65, inclusive 7.5 per cent VAT and with a completion period of six months,” he said.
Also, the Federal Government yesterday apologised over the death of about 64 persons reportedly killed in an airstrike by a Nigerian military plane on Sunday at Mutumji community in Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State.
Those reportedly killed were armed militants while others were civilian residents of the community.
The victims, including women and children, were killed when a plane bombed the community while chasing fleeing bandits who reportedly invaded the town.
