By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the contract for the reconstruction of the Mushin-NNPC- Apapa-Oshodi road, in Lagos state, at the cost of N11,166,270, 197.85 for the reconstruction of the Mushin-NNPC- Apapa-Oshodi road, in Lagos state, to Strabag Construction Company, with a completion period of 20 months.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, who revealed this on Wednesday while briefing State House Correspondents after the weekly FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at State House, Abuja, said the Council approved two memoranda presented by his ministry.
According to him, the Mushin-NNPC-
Apapa-Oshodi road which is the road that goes through Isolo to Ejigbo, is very strategic to the nation, adding that Council also approved the report and recommendation of a Council Committee set up by the President in order to respond to demands by state governments for refunds on intervention made previously before Buhari administration came to power.
The Minister said: “the Council approved two memoranda presented by the ministry. The first was contract for the reconstruction of the Mushin-NNPC-Apapa-Oshodi road, that is the road that goes through Isolo to Ajigbo, at the sum of N11,166,270,197.85 to Strabag Construction Company, with a completion period of 20 months”.
“The Council aslo approved the report and recommendation of a Council Committee set up by the President in order to respond to demands by state governments for refunds on intervention made previously before this administration on federal roads, before the President subsequently issued the directive that there should be no more intervention by states on federal roads, but there were some that had been done before the life of this administration”.
“So there were three states, Kebbi, Yobe and Taraba. I think on the 22nd of June, I reported that the claims for Yobe for N18.663 billion were approved. That left for those of Kebbi and Taraba states. So today council approved N6.706 billion for Kebbi state and N2.470 billion for Taraba states”.
Speaking further Fashola said:
“The Council also approved that the road under construction by Taraba states for which this reimbursement is being made that that contract by the state government should not be terminated. That is a section between Bali and Ceti”.
“This is because you will recall last year that council had approved the full reconstruction of Balley Ceti to Kimbu under the NNPC tax credit scheme. This is a better design road than the one that has a laterite base currently being constructed by the Taraba state government. But because there was an existing approval given before the life of this administration, we will refund up to this last reform. But we will not refund anymore, we’re going to reconstruct the road”.
“So I just thought it was important to make that clarification. We have a full construction now, instead of part construction that the Taraba state was undertaking.
The Minister however said that:
“another interesting thing to note about these reforms is that they relate to debts and obligations incurred by the previous administration before the life of this administration. So this is also part of the national debt”.
“So the process of payment requires the Ministry of Finance subsequent to this approval now, to go to the National Assembly, to get approval to raise debt to secure payment to the States. I think it’s important to note that when we’re having conversation about the national debt, these are some of the components that were inherited debts that this government is also paying for infrastructure”.
“The last point to note is that this is a bipartisan approval, irrespective of party affiliations, all of the states who submit who met the conditions, who showed documentation benefited, as you will see Taraba, Kebb and Yobe are certainly bipartisan in their political affiliations. And you will see that previously, when I came here, we had reported refunds to states like our Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Cross River, and Osun I believe, at the time”.
“So, it has gone on like this and the total amount now the first tranche was about 700 billion for 24 states. I think we then reported about another N120 something for about billion, five states. So now this is a total of N18.6 billion plus N6.7 billion, that’s about 25, roughly about 2.5. About 27. there abouts, if you add it up, again, so is nearing a trillion very progressively and as part of the public debt that we’re talking about”.
