FEC Approves N117bn For Oil Museum, N721m For Airport Maintenance
The Federal Executive Council has approved the sum of N117 billion for the construction of Oloibiri oil museum in Bayelsa State.
Minister of State for Petroleum resources, Timipre Sylva, revealed this to State House Correspondents at the end of Wednesday’s meeting of the Council, chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Sylva said the proposed museum would also serve as a research centre hence enhancing academic activities.
“The Federal Executive Council today approved the award of the contract for the construction of the Oloibiri Oil Museum and Research Centre to Julius Berger PLC in the sum of N117 billion with a completion time frame of 30 months,” he said.
The Minister stated that the period, which started in the early 80s by the late President Shehu Shagari but could not be continued due to paucity of funds but the Muhammadu Buhair led administration has injected life into the project because of its importance.
On the recent emergence of queues at petrol stations across the country, the Minister said some marketers were responsible because they want to make filthy profits but the government will do everything possible to ameliorate the situation.
He said: “This is quite unfortunate and we are not happy at all with what is going on. Every hand is on deck to check the excesses of these marketers. At the moment today there is supply but unfortunately we are experiencing some bottlenecks in the distribution and movement of the product to various destinations. I want to assure you that everything is being done; the NNPC Ltd and all other stakeholders are working hard to ensure that this problem is resolved.
“We have reports of profiteering by marketers and I have directed the pricing regulatory agency, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority to sanction anybody who profiteers on this kind of situation.”
Meanwhile Minister for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, also disclosed that the ministry got an approval Of N721 million for the award of contract for the maintenance of the Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano State.
It is a contract that was awarded for airport maintenance and technical support at Mallam Aminu Kano Airport in Kano and it will be for a period of 12 months and the sum of the contract is N721, 266, 733,. 64 and the memorandum was approved,” he said.
Giving an update on the introduction of a national carrier for the country, the Minister said all arrangements have been concluded and the carrier will soon commence services.
“Nigeria Air will soon start flying. We have got the aircrafts ready, they have been painted in their colours and we have all what we should do and we are now at stage five, which is Air Operator Certificate (AOC) issuance by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority and once that is done, the airline will begin to fly,” the Minister explained.
