FEC okays Army varsity in Borno

The Federal Executive Council yesterday approved the establishment of Nigeria Army University in Biu, Borno state. This was disclosed by the Minister of Education, Mr. Adamu Adamu, while briefi ng State House correspondents at the end of the weekly FEC meeting in Abuja. Also speaking, Minister of Interior, Mr. Abdurahman Danbazzau, said the council approved the upgrade of infrastructure at the Nigeria Police Academy, Kano, at the cost of N234 million. He said the new infrastructure would include two faculty buildings, cafeteria, cadets’ mess, among others, in order to meet the minimum academic requirements for relevant accreditation of degree courses in the academy as stipulated by the National Universities Commission (NUC).
In his briefing, Minister of Water Resources, Mr. Suleiman Adamu, said the council approved declaration of emergency in the water and sanitation sector included increased funding for the sector. “We submitted a memo to council to approve an action plan on how to address these issues. We had three prayers for the council to approve the action plan: to declare a state of emergency on water and sanitation sector; to approve the establishment of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Fund for the country.
“This fund will be one that federal, states and international donors can put in money so that we can begin to address the crisis water and sanitation sector in the country. We also requested that henceforth the budget for water and sanitation in the country to be significantly increased so that we will be able to face these challenges. Council accepted our prayers and we will move on,” he said. Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu briefed journalists at the end of the FEC meeting on behalf of the Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Women Aff airs and Social Development.
Approves N47bn for Aba-P/Harcourt, Lagos-Ota roadsSimilarly, FEC approved N47 billion for road projects in the country, including redesign and reconstruction of the Aba-PortHarcourt section of the EnuguPort-Harcourt Expressway. This was disclosed by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, while briefi ng State House correspondents after the weekly FEC meeting in Abuja. “The Ministry of Power, Works and Housing got approval for three memos. One was for Baban LambaSharam Road in Plateau state for the contraction of 44.625 kilometers for N19.392 billion.
The second was for Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta road. That road was first awarded in year 2000 and it has since been left uncompleted because they want no budgetary provisions for it. “This administration in trying to move this contractor to site stated the revision of the rate. So the revised rates were brought to council today and a revision of N22 billion was approved for the 81-kilometer road, bringing the total contract price to N56.701 billion.
“The third approval was for the section four of the Enugu Port Harcourt Road, the part between Abia and Port Harcourt, particularly in Port Harcourt that has been problematic and has failed severally. We have a contractor there but we needed to change the design because of the storm water drainage needs and the high water tables there so that the road does not fail. So that requires a revision of the scope of work to include retaining sidelanes and also drainage facilities in the sum of N6.309 billion,” he said.
Also speaking, Minister of Transport, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, said the council also approved the dredging of Warri seaport in Delta state and the refurbishment of its navigational facilities at the cost of N13 billion. Managing Director of Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Mrs. Hadiza Bala Usman, who led senior officials of the organisation to the Villa to defend the proposal, explained that the dredging of the Escravos channel of the seaport would improve the fortunes of Warri port and expand the utilisation of Eastern seaports.