- Okays N4.2bn for manufacture of aircraft fire simulator
Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) wednesday in Abuja approved N20.845billion for the reconstruction of Ikorodu – Sagamu Road in Lagos State.
Briefing journalists at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in the Presidential Villa, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who announced the approval on behalf of the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, who was absent at the briefing, said the reconstruction would reduce accidents on the road as well as loss of lives.
He also said the reconstruction would reduce travel time and operating cost for both commuters and transporters adding that the development will also enhance the movement of both petroleum and agricultural products.
“On behalf of Minister of Power, Works and Housing, l will also brief you that FEC approved the rehabilitation of Ikorodu – Sagamu road in Lagos State at the sum of N20, 845,336. 214. The significance of the award of this contract is that it will reduce road accidents and loss of lives.
“Of course, it will reduce travel time and operating cost for transporters and commuters, and more importantly, it will enhance the movement of petroleum and agricultural products and also facilitate other commercial activities. If you remember, Mosinmi, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) depot is along that line.
In his own briefing, the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, said the council also approved N4.2billion for the design, manufacture and installation of fully automated fire and smoke aircraft simulator at the cost of N4billion.
According to him, implementation of the project will put paid to the hitherto attitude of sending fire fighters to Cameroun for training.
“Today, the FEC considered a memo from the Ministry of Transportation (Aviation). The purpose of that memo was to award a contract for the design, manufacture and installation of fully automated fire and smoke aircraft training simulator. The total contract sum is N4,233.756bn.
“The council graciously considered and approved the contract. This fire fighting equipment is extremely very important because when we came into government in 2015, I found myself approving several hundreds of thousands of dollars for our fire fighters to go to Cameroun to get trained for proficiency in fire fighting and come back to fight fire in Nigeria with 30 airports. We cannot continue to depend on a neighbouring country to learn how to fight fire. So, we conceptualised and developed the project. Federal fire service, state governments and anybody can leverage on the equipment that we will bring to fight fire,†he said.
