FEC approves N79.6bn for completion of Odukpani-Itu-Ikot Ekpene road

The Federal Executive Council has approved the sum of N79.649 billion for the completion of dualization of the Odukpani-Itu-Ikot Ekpene road to Messers Sematech Nigeria Ltd.

The project to be executed over 16 months period.

Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola disclosed this during briefing with State House correspondents on the outcome of the FEC meeting on Wednesday.

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 it was in relation to the section from Oku Iboku Power Plant to Abak of about 26 kilometre stretch.

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“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 south East to Abia, it’s very very important trade link for the country,” Fashola said.

The Minister explained that the area is the rain forest area of the country and very high water table and rains in seven, eight months of the year.

“So when we are awarded the first section, from Odukpani-Itu to Julius Berger in 2016. They could not move to site because of the limited budgetary requisitions. 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 Ekpene was awarded in last year, February 2020. We have had to mobilise some Suku resources to the area.

“Sometime last year, you might recall that I was there visiting with the governor, I actually went twice. And we focus first on the link road from Alese Ugep area because that was a very big bad one, that one used to take like, three, four days to traverse a 70 kilometer road. Now we have that under control resolved motorable in the first phase to Odukpani.

“That has reduced the journey time there to less than two hours, from days. So again, it’s a work in progress, 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 Suku. So these are the challenges that we face.

“We mobilise the contractors, now is to keep them resourced and finance so that they can do the work, especially during the the forthcoming dry season. So when you see the Minister of Finance, talking about the deficit that needs to be financed by borrowing, this is what is largely deployed to. But it’s just not enough because almost all of what was left undone for about two decades, we’ve inherited it, and we ask for the job and we commit to doing it,” Fashola added.

The Federal Executive Council following a memo from Federal Ministry of human affairs disaster management, social development, also approved draft national policy on internally displaced persons in Nigeria.

“And I must say that today is a great day for the ministry as well as for the government. This administration has reached another milestone for the purpose of this internally displaced persons.
“The national policy on internal displacements provides a platform for all relevant actors in humanitarian and development space to key in and contribute towards a common goal. And the overall goal of the policy is to strengthen institutional mechanism and frameworks for the realisation of rights, dignity and wellbeing of vulnerable populations through mitigation of impact and achievement of durable solutions to internal displacement in Nigeria.
“And with the approval of this policy today, a multi-sectoral structure will fully emerge, which will ensure a coordinated operational and strategic response to all the humanitarian challenges our nation is facing, providing practical and actionable solutions that will resolve internal displacement in the country,” Fashola added.

On the collapsed road in Lokoja-Kabba road, Fashola said it was caused by nature and aging. He said they are already talking to FERMA and contractors in the area on stablization and remedial efforts.

His word: “Again, my understanding I will share. Nobody that I know in the transport sector rear easy during bad weather. Whether you’re in aviation, rail, road, once there is bad weather either it is snow, hurricane, heavy rainfall, tornadoes nobody rest easy. Things change, flights can be cancelled, train schedules, change, roads fail. So this is our very, very difficult season. As we go through the rainy season, this is the context in which to locate the Lokoja-Kabba.

“It’s a failure caused by nature and aging. And, again, an opportunity to share with you what we have. We expect that these things will happen, but we don’t know where it will happen every time.

“So we’ve been proposing that Nigeria should have an emergency provision in the works budget, but we haven’t been successful enough. There must be a contingency, a sizable sum, because when we see failures, last year, we had a problem like that in Kebbi, where roads were washed away. We couldn’t respond because we didn’t have the resources. But we will lean on FERMA.

“So the first thing to do always the controllers in each state, are the President’s ambassadors or ministry’s ambassadors, in those states, and we continue this interaction and education with them. And once these problems arise, go out there, acknowledge that you are representative and tell the people what you plan to do. There’s a sense of relief, that somebody stepped forward to take responsibility.

“So our controller has responded. But I’m sure that they will go back there and communicate to the people of Kogi state what our response plan be. We’re already talking to FERMA, we are seeing resources that we can deploy. We’re also talking to contractors in the area who we have contracts with what stablization and remedial efforts we will make there, because we’re diverting traffic to alternate roads.

“A figure to the desired contingency? Well, traditionally back in Lagos when I was governor, I think we used to provide about five 5% of our capital expenditure as a contingency fund for emergencies. Something between three and 5% varies across the world.”