The Abuja Municipal Management Council, AMMC will spend about N2. 6 billion on infrastructure this year, while the Federal Capital Development Authority, FCDA has outlined projects for the year.
This revelation was made on Tuesday during the 14th FCT executive meeting.
Briefing newsmen after the executive meeting which was chaired by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, Chief of Staff to the FCT Minister, Chidi Amadi who briefed the press after the meeting said that 13 memos were presented and nine were approved.
He explained that AMMC presented three memos and that there were all approved, while FCDA presented seven memos.
“These memos are memos intended to continue to deepen the infrastructural development and the upgrade of our great city, Abuja, and its environment,” Amadi stated.
Coordinator of AMMC, Felix Obuah who took his turn to brief the press said they sought and got approval for the ratification and award of “contracts for the operation and maintenance of Apo Erector, and also sought and got approval for the extension of service contracts for the operation and maintenance of Wupa Basic Sewage Treatment Plant.”
Obuah said that they also “sought and got approval for the extension of service contracts for the provision of solid waste collection and management services for the FCT.”
“All these three approvals put together gave us almost a total of about N2.6 billion Naira,” Obuah stated.
In similar vain, Engr. Richard Unana, acting Executive Secretary, FCDA outlined the projects approved by the FCT executive meeting.
He said seven memos were presented and all seven were approved.
He said the first was for the “upgrading and support of obsolete street lights on the Nnamdi-Azikwe Expressway, that is the Abuja Ring Road 1. It’s a 14-kilometer, 10-lane expressway starting from Maitama all through to Gudu and Garki.”
Explaining the rationale for the contract, Unana said: “If you pass there in the night, you will realise that most of it is in darkness. The street lights there have been there for close to 15 years now. The project was completed around 2005 or 2006 and the lights have become obsolete. They are no more bright and new technology has come for the street lighting. So the hybrid system is going to be deployed there to brighten the place and make it more secure and more motorable in the night, and that memo was passed for implementation.”
Another memo was for the construction of one block of magistrate courts at Jabi area of Abuja.
The third one was the provision of pedestrian access control at interchanges. “We already have about eight lots of such going on. It includes fencing out with mesh wire, the interchanges, the green areas in the interchanges and loops, and those as well as providing walkways at the interchanges. These projects are to help in securing the areas of the interchanges as well as limiting movement of miscreants and criminals within those interchanges.
“Of course, you will see open defecation going on. So this fencing that is being done is going to add to the beauty of the city and beauty of the interchanges. We have over 12 lots this time for various locations of interchanges and that was approved.”
Another memo that was presented and approved was for the construction of access roads and drainages as work se culverts in Durumi district. “It involves construction of several roads within part of the district of Durumi and totally about 1.7 kilometers all of them.”
Also that for the provision of access road and infrastructure to parts of Mabushi district, “particularly the Kez Udezue street, and other few roads around Mabushi district in that area.
“The scope of that project is to provide access roads, underground drainage services, street lighting, and other facilities like water and sewage collection.”
Another memo presented was for the complete renovation and furnishing as well as technical installations at the Department of State Security headquarters.
The last of the memo approved for FCDA was for an emergency contract for erosion menace of a major pipeline from Lower Usuma Dam through Kubwa, through airport, which goes down to Gwagwalada.
“Erosion had taken place on the major pipeline feeding the various tanks up to Gwagwalada and it was a threat to the major water supply to all these areas. So a company was invited and they carried out the work on emergency basis and that has been completed,” the FCDA ES explained.
The Chief of Staff to the FCT Minister later explained that the absence if the Director of Land had hindered other aspects that would have been explained, but that he would be available in a later date to brief the press.