Nigeria signs Safe School Declaration

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, ratified the Safe School Declaration. Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents after the FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari. The Safe Schools Declaration is an inter-governmental political commitment that was opened for endorsement by countries […]

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, ratified the Safe School Declaration.

Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents after the FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Safe Schools Declaration is an inter-governmental political commitment that was opened for endorsement by countries at an international conference held in Oslo, Norway, on May 28 to May 29, 2015.

According to Adamu, there have been a number of activities on the initiative, but Nigeria is now committed to implementing the Safe School guideline.

“The Safe School initiative will come in proper focus when there is some conflict and the Federal Government will come to their aid but they themselves are doing what they are supposed to do in all the places where they are affected by the conflict.’’

Adamu said that FEC also awarded a contract for the construction of a Faculty of Arts in Adamawa State University for N630 million.

He said that the project would be funded by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund(TETFUND).

On his part, the Minister of Environment, Suleiman Hassan, said that FEC approved the award of contract for the remediation of five more lots for the ongoing clean-up in Ogoni land, as a result of the UNEP report that was submitted to the Federal Government.

He said that in June 2016, the president launched the clean-up exercise in Ogoni land, adding that sites had been handed over to 16-member companies.

“Work is in progress as of today; we have made appreciable progress; we have now awarded five more.

“Why are they coming in phases? The first 16-member was within the threshold of the Ministerial Tenders Board but this one is far above the threshold of the Ministerial Tenders Board.

“That is why it has to come to FEC and we are glad to say that we have secured approval and the contractors will be handed over to the sites as soon as it is practicably possible.

“The contract cost for this five-number lot is N3.039 billion,’’ he said.

More so, Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, said that FEC approved the augmentation of the contract for the Ivo Water Supply Project in Enugu State by about N136million.

He said the contract, which was awarded in 2013 at the cost of N985 million, had been reviewed upwards to N1.12 1billion.

Adamu said the approval followed a memo submitted by the Ministry of Water Resources to the cabinet meeting.

He said the approval was in line with government’s commitment to complete all ongoing projects.

“It is over 80 per cent completed but obviously because of change of scope and issue that have to do with revision of rates, we sought and got approval to revise the cost of the project,” he said.

Earlier, Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, who moderated the briefing, said that the council had an unusually long meeting.(NAN)