The Federal Executive Council presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, Wednesday approved a refund of N9.6 billion to Plateau and Borno States for road projects executed by the two States on behalf of the Federal government.
Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola made the disclosure while briefing State House Correspondents on decisions reached at the weekly meeting held at the council chambers,
He said: “We presented two policy memoranda. The first was for a refund to two State governments for previous interventions on federal government roads subject to the July 2016 cut-off after which refunds will no longer be eligible.
“The two States which had outstanding with respect to eligible roads are Plateau and Borno States. Council approved the refund of N6, 601,769, 470, 99 in favour of Plateau State and the sum of N3, 084, 797, 113.34 for Borno State.”
The Works Minister also disclosed that the council approved a memorandum that informed it about the commencement of a procurement process for a Central Clearing House for the operations of Toll Plaza Concessionaires.
He said this was in line with the current administration’s decision to resuscitate tolling across the country.
“This approval will give room for a private sector operator to build a Central Clearing House at its own expense, operate it, recover and then ultimately transfer back to government. What the Central Clearing House will do is to synchronise interoperability between different toll systems that may be used by different concessionaires when they commence their tolls and also provide a on stop accounting system and a single payment recovery system where everybody is paid at the end of the operations as well as provide visibility for government to see what is going on in the operations of each concessionaire,” he explained.
Also speaking the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo, said Council approved N1,803,556,537 contract for the construction of a package sewage system for the authority’s head office within the Liberty Free Zone in Akwa Ibom State.
“My ministry brought a memo on behalf of the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority, which is a parastatal under our ministry, as part of its responsibility of regulating and attracting foreign direct investments into the country is supervising certain oil and gas free zones in the country and one of which is the Liberty Free Zone in Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom State.
“To this end, they sought Council’s approval for the award of contract for the construction of a package sewage system for the authorities head office within the Liberty Free Zone in Akwa Ibom State, in the sum of N1,803,556,537.95, inclusive of 7.5% VAT, with the completion period of 10 months, without variation and Counsel graciously approved the award of the contract”, he said.
Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, disclosed that Council approved a total sum of N4,078,903,692 for three contracts in the Osun State University, Osogbo; the Federal University, Lokoja and National Commission for Nomadic Education.
He also disclosed that Council approved the memorandum that sought the takeover of the David Umahi University of Medical Sciences, Ebonyi, by the federal government, as well as the change of the name of the institution from David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences.
“We presented four memos, three of them were contracts. The first is for the construction of the Senate Building in Osun State University, in Osogbo. This is at a cost of N2,134,686,307.88, with the completion period of 76 weeks and the contractor is WAZLAF Engineering Limited.
“Second one is another Senate Building. This one is at the Federal University, Lokoja and it is at the cost of N1,607,471,754.77, with the completion period of 50 weeks and the contractor for the project is Amber Bliss Nigeria Limited.
“The third one is a contract for the erection of radio antenna for the National Commission for Nomadic Education. It is 50 kilowatt AM radio and the contractor is ECALPEMOS Technologies Limited and the contract sum is N336,745,631.70. The completion period is 14 weeks.
“The last one is a memo for the takeover of David Umahi University of Medical Sciences, Ebonyi, by the federal government. What we brought in the memo is for Council to ratify the agreement that has been entered between the Ebonyi State government and the federal government and then to approve the renaming of the university from David Umahi University of Medical Sciences to David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences and to approve a draft bill, which has been written, and then to approve the transmittal of this bill to the National Assembly for enactment into an Act”, he said.
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