Adedokun Waliyu 
The federal executive council (FEC) has approved the sum of N4.3 billion for the procurement of security equipment in railway stations across the country.
The FEC meeting, presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, was held on Wednesday at the presidential villa in Abuja.
Last month, FEC approved N495 million for the installation of scanners in all railway stations across the nation.
Speaking after the recent council meeting, Mu’azu Sambo, minister of transportation, said three memoranda were approved.
Sambo said the first memorandum was in respect to the provision of security equipment for the Nigerian railway stations across the country (phase two).
The minister said the council approved the second memorandum, which was for security equipment such as baggage scanners, walkthrough metal detectors, X-ray male scanners, liquid explosive detectors, narcotics camera, trace bomb detectors, among others.
He said the contract, awarded to Messrs Advonix Services Nigeria Limited in the sum of N4.3 billion, was for a completion period of 12 months.
“The second memorandum is also from the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to provide a secure e-ticketing solution for the Lagos-Ibadan corridor and the Warri-Itakpe corridor under a design, finance, build, operate, maintain and transfer public-private partnership arrangement for the Nigerian railway corporation,” Sambo said.
“The Lagos-Ibadan corridor was approved in favour of Messrs Global Software Digital solutions Limited and Datamatics Global Services Limited for a concession period of 10 years at a sharing ratio of 81.5 percent to NRC and 18.5 percent to the concessionaire.
“The Warri-Itakpe corridor under the same partnership arrangement was approved for Messrs Fein International Consult Limited and Artificial Intelligence Technologies Limited for a concession period of 10 years and the same sharing ratio.
“The third memorandum is in respect of our requests by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency to buy two buildings in Port Harcourt and Abuja to serve as a zonal office, as well as an Abuja liaison office respectively. This was granted by the council.”
“Also speaking to journalists after the meeting, Garba Shehu, presidential spokesperson, said the council also approved two separate contracts for the Ogoni community worth over N120 billion.
The contracts, according to Shehu, include a water project which has been awarded under the second phase in Ogoni land, “amounting to N22.8 billion”.
“Approval was also given for the award of contract for the remediation of newly identified hydrocarbon impacted sites along the shoreline of Ogoni land and this is for about N107 billion,” he said.
On his part, Sulaiman Adamu, minister of water resources, said the council also approved a memo for the concession of the operation and maintenance of the proposed Gurara II 300MW hydroelectric power project.
He said the project will be financed by China’s EXIM Bank loan along with a 15 percent equity contribution by the contractor and 50 percent. counterpart funding by the federal government.
“The 30-year concession is expected to pay back between $800 and $900 million,” Adamu said.
