Federal Government approves N31.2bn power contract..

The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved a contract for the generation of power from the 40MW Kashimbila Multipurpose Dam to the tune of N31.2 billion.

The approval was given during the council’s meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan.

Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku; Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu; Minister of State, Power, Muhammed Wakil; Minister of State, Health, Khaliru Alhassan; and the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement, Emeka Eze, briefed State House correspondents of the meeting’s outcome.

Wakil said the contract awarded to the contractor currently building the dam, SCC Nigeria Limited, was expected to be completed in 18 months.

He said apart from the additional megawatts of power that it would add to the national grid on completion, the project would also create employment opportunities for the people of the community.

Alhassan said he briefed the council on the progress being made to completely eradicate polio from the country.

He said so far, there were only six cases of polio in the country.

He gave the affected states to include Kano and Yobe.

“The council was happy about progress made. We have the belief that sooner than expected, polio will be eradicated in the country,” he said.

Eze, on his part, said a committee headed by him present the report of a technical assessment they carried out on 15 ongoing erosion projects in the South East to the council.

He said the first phases of about six of the projects had been completed 100 per cent while others were between 60 per cent and 90 per cent completion stages.