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[Nigeria] FG, Dangote Sign N11.5bn Concrete Road Project

[Nigeria] FG, Dangote Sign N11.5bn Concrete Road Project

Work is to commence in full on the 42.5km Obajana-Kabba Road in Kogi State, following the signing of a N11.5bn landmark contract document between the federal government and the Dangote Group yesterday, in Abuja.

The permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, Engr Magaji Abdullahi Gusau, signed the long awaited contract document on behalf of the federal government.

Honorary adviser to the president of the Dangote Group, Engr Joseph Makoju, who signed on behalf of the Dangote Group, described the deal as a milestone in the history of Nigeria.

The concrete pavement to be built by the AG Dangote Construction Company will cost the conglomerate N11.5 billion but the job was awarded on a tax concession basis at N5.24 billion.

The difference of N6.2 billion is part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the Dangote Group.

The managing director of AG Dangote Construction Company, Mr Ashif Juma, gave the completion time as 24 months but noted that the Dangote Group wanted to finish it in 16 months.

LEADERSHIP recalls that, as part of its CSR, the Dangote Group had commissioned the 26km Itori-Ibese Concrete Road in June, this year.

FG Ready with Counterpart Funding for Railway Projects with China

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has disclosed that the federal government is ready with the counterpart funding for the designated railway constructions: Lagos-Kano and Calabar-Lagos lines.

Osinbajo, stated this yesterday when he received the new Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Zhou Pingjian, who paid him a courtesy visit.

He noted that the relationship between Nigeria and China is getting stronger and strategic.

The Chinese envoy, in his remarks, said trade between both countries had increased and described Nigeria as the “giant of Africa.”

Meanwhile, the vice president has told Niger Delta militants that they are committing self-harm by damaging facilities meant to help the people of the region.

According to a statement by his spokesman, Laolu Akande, Osinbajo made the remark yesterday, while receiving a delegation of Urhobo Leaders of Thought, led by the president, Chief Tuesday Onoge, and APC’s gubernatorial candidate in the 2015 elections, Olorogun Ortega Emerhor, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The militants have been attacking and destroying oil pipelines and other installations in the region in a bid to coerce government to pay more attention to the distressed region.

But Osinbajo said: “So much damage is being done; governments will come and go, but this damage will ultimately destroy people’s livelihoods, aspirations and their future.

“Nobody else anywhere in the world will destroy the facilities meant to help them. There is no benefit whatsoever from the destruction.”

He maintained that the Buhari administration would continue its outreach to leaders and groups in the Niger Delta in seeking peaceful solutions to the crisis and called for understanding, especially on the part of the leaders of the region, stressing that damaging the oil facilities “does not lead to anything good.”

Regarding the opened channels of communication and negotiation with the Niger Delta leaders and representatives, the vice president gave the assurance that President Muhammadu Buhari had shown exemplary leadership and is someone that can be trusted.

“He is quiet, but fiercely determined once he makes up his mind and gives his word,” the Osinbajo observed while encouraging the Niger Delta people to work with the president.

Earlier in his comments, Chief Onoge had lamented that if the money sent to the Niger Delta in the last 16 years were judiciously spent, the people of the region would have benefitted immensely.

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