BEVERLY HILLS, July 26, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government on Wednesday revealed that emergency repair works carried out on the Abuja-Kaduna highway during the recent six-weeks closure of the Nnandi Azikiwe International Airport, NAIA, Abuja gulped N1.58bn.
This was disclosed to State House correspondents by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, revealing that approval has now been given by the Federal Executive Council, FEC, to cover the expenses incurred for the repair works in line with provisions of the law.
THEWILL recalls that as a result of NAIA closure some four months ago, flights into and out of Abuja were diverted to the Kaduna International Airport, making it necessary for air passengers to shuttle regularly between Abuja and Kaduna.
Fashola also revealed that the cost for repair works for the Apapa wharf road which was executed under anticipatory Presidential approval was N4.131bn.
According to him, ”The two memos presented by my ministry were ratification of road works that had to be done under emergency circumstances.
“The first was the Abuja- Kaduna highway. Recall that we had to immediately do palliative works in order to support the closure of the Abuja airport runway which necessitated diversion of traffic to Kaduna.
“At that time we didn’t have FEC’s approval we only had anticipatory Presidential approval as prescribed under the law for emergencies works.
“The second project was in respect to the Apapa Wharf road. Recall that there was a recent presidential order for a 24-hour port operation and that again put pressure on an already deteriorating road.
“If you might recall I also went to hand over that road sometime in June under the public private partnership structure between Julius Berger, Flour Mills, NPA and the ministry of Power, Works and Housing to start construction on that first phase of the road.
“Council approved and ratified works that we had conducted on Abuja-Kaduna highway and also terms and conditions upon which we handed over the Apapa road.
“N1.58billionn for the 165 km Abuja-Kaduna stretch where we did mainly patching of potholes to make the roads motor-able during the closure of the Abuja airport. The Apapa project cost N4.131billion.”
