The Federal Executive Council (FEC) during a meeting held on Wednesday approved road construction contract worth N79.6 billion.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, made this known while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
According to him, approval was made for the dualization of the Odukpani-Itu-Ikot Ekpene road at the cost of N79.649 billion.
The Minister said the approval for his ministry was in relation to the section from Oku Iboku Power Plant to Abak of about 26 kilometre stretch.
He said, “The Ministry of Works and Housing presented the memorandum for the completion of the dualization of the Odukpani-Itu-Ikot Ekpene road. And this is in relation to the section from Oku Iboku Power Plant to Abak of about 26 kilometre stretch.
“Council approved the award to Messers Sematech Nigeria Ltd for N79.649 billion to be executed over 16 months.
“So, this will help complete the dualization gaps between the one awarded to Julius Berger and the section awarded to CCECC. When this is done, motorists in that area will now have an option of the dual carriageway instead of the existing single carriageway.
“And this is in recognition of the heavy cargo that passes through that area from the south-south through to the north-central, Benue through Katsina-Ala through to the southeast to Abia. It’s very very important trade link for the country.”
Asked to give an update on the 2020 contract award for the same project, Fashola regretted that there had been paucity funds to implement the project.
The minister added, “So, when we awarded the first section, from Odukpani-Itu to Julius Berger in 2016, they could not move to the site because of the limited budgetary requisitions.
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“So, that slowed down work in that area and they didn’t move to site until 2018. And the second section, which was from Abak to Ikot Ikot Ekpene was awarded in last year, February 2020. We have had to mobilise some Sukuku resources to the area.
“We’re still challenged by resources. What we can mobilize there when you look at the contract amounts is about N54 billion, as you rightly pointed out, we have about N4 billion, N5 billion in the Suku. And if you look at this year’s budget for the whole area, the amount approved by parliament was N100 million.
“So, again, we’re hoping that we can fund this one, because we’ve proposed it for this year’s Sukuku. So, these are the challenges that we face.
