THISDAY

FEC Approves N20bn for Rehabilita­tion of IkoroduSag­amu Road

Okays N4.2bn for manufactur­e of aircraft fire simulator

- Abuja in

Omololu Ogunmade The Federal Executive Council (FEC) yesterday in Abuja approved N20.845billion for the reconstruc­tion of Ikorodu - Sagamu Road in Lagos State.

Briefing journalist­s at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in the Presidenti­al Villa, the Minister of Informatio­n and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who announced the approval on behalf of the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, who was absent at the briefing, said the reconstruc­tion would reduce accidents on the road as well as loss of lives.

He also said the reconstruc­tion would reduce travel time and operating cost for both commuters and transporte­rs adding that the developmen­t will also enhance the movement of both petroleum and agricultur­al products.

“On behalf of Minister of Power, Works and Housing, l will also brief you that FEC approved the rehabilita­tion of Ikorodu - Sagamu road in Lagos State at the sum of N20, 845,336. 214. The significan­ce of the award of this contract is that it will reduce road accidents and loss of lives.

“Of course, it will reduce travel time and operating cost for transporte­rs and commuters, and more importantl­y, it will enhance the movement of petroleum and agricultur­al products and also facilitate other commercial activities. If you remember, Mosinmi, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporatio­n (NNPC) depot is along that line.

In his own briefing, the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, said the council also approved N4.2billion for the design, manufactur­e and installati­on of fully automated fire and smoke aircraft simulator at the cost of N4billion.

According to him, implementa­tion of the project will put paid to the hitherto attitude of sending fire fighters to Cameroun for training.

“Today, the FEC considered a memo from the Ministry of Transporta­tion (Aviation). The purpose of that memo was to award a contract for the design, manufactur­e and installati­on of fully automated fire and smoke aircraft training simulator. The total contract sum is N4,233.756bn.

“The council graciously considered and approved the contract. This fire fighting equipment is extremely very important because when we came into government in 2015, I found myself approving several hundreds of thousands of dollars for our fire fighters to go to Cameroun to get trained for proficienc­y in fire fighting and come back to fight fire in Nigeria with 30 airports. We cannot continue to depend on a neighbouri­ng country to learn how to fight fire. So, we conceptual­ised and developed the project. Federal fire service, state government­s and anybody can leverage on the equipment that we will bring to fight fire,” he said.

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