By Nathaniel Zacchaeus
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Musa Bello, yesterday said N30.22bn has been spent on the ongoing rehabilitation of the entire complex of the National Assembly.

The FCT Minister stated this during an oversight tour on some ongoing projects carried out by the Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory.

He said a total of N37bn was appropriated in 2020 for the rehabilitation work by the National Assembly, but later downwardly reviewed to N9.25bn in the revised 2020 budget.
The Minister told the Senate panel that the contract sum for the rehabilitation work is N30, 229, 290, 830.35billion out of which N9.2bn has been paid, with a balance of N21.02bn to be paid to contractors handling the works.

According to him, in terms of duration, the contract which was awarded on Dec. 30, 2021, has a completion date of August 15, 2023, having commenced on April 16, 2022.

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He stated that the National Assembly Phase II is popularly known as “the White House” was realised from 1996 to 1999 by ITB Nigeria Ltd without any major rehabilitation works carried out on the building over the years.

He listed other priority projects embarked upon by the administration including rehabilitation of the Federal Secretariat complex, and construction of the southern parkway from the Christian Centre to the ring road.

Others he said were rehabilitation of expansion of Outer Southern Expressway, provision of engineering infrastructure for Wuye District, rehabilitation and expansion of Outer Southern Expressway Villa Roundabout, and completion of B6, B12, and Circle Road in Central Area.

He, however, said the scarcity of funds made the FCT administration prioritize some of the projects in terms of full execution.

Bello further said that the ministry intended that as the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration rounds off, several projects would be completed.

On his part, Chairman Senate Committee on FCT, Tolu Odebiyi (APC Ogun-East), who led the committee members said, “What we have seen is quite impressive.

“We believe that in the twilight of this administration, in the next month, it is important we catalogue all the projects that are being done and prioritise the ones that must be completed before the end of this term.”