Acting President
Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday while presiding over the Federal Executive Council, FEC, approved N20.6 billion for the
reconstruction of two road projects in Plateau and Kwara States.
Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, said
this when he briefed State House correspondents on the outcome of the
Council’s meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said that N10.4 billion of the amount would be expended on the
reconstruction of Pankshin-Balank-Yalen-Salak-Gindiri road in Plateau,
while the remaining N10.2 billion would be spent on Sharre-Patigi road
in Kwara.
“The ministry presented two memoranda to the council. The first was,
with respect for approval to construct the
Pankshin-Balank-Yalen-Salak-Gindiri road in Plateau state for N10.46
billion.“The second one is the Sharre-Patigi road in Kwara for N10.2 billion, both prayers were approved by the council.’’ he said.
According to the minister, the council also approved the negotiation
reached between the federal government and a contractor over the supply
of three million electricity meters awarded in 2003.
He stated that the contract was never fully performed by both parties, which subsequently ended up in the court.
“The other memorandum was in respect to inherited liabilities from
the old power ministry where a judgment of N119 billion had been signed
against the Federal Government as a result of acts of officials of
government who varied the presidential approval without seeking further
directive and then awarded the contract on that basis.“So, the party who was the beneficiary of that contract which they
subsequently sought to withdraw went to court and got a judgment.“The happy news is that council approved the memo to give effect to
the negotiation that we were able to put together, to compromise that
judgment entirely and to convert the old N37 billion into a loan to that
contractor, so that they can use it to supply meters to the DISCOs,” he
said.