At last, 2nd Niger Bridge completed, ready for commissioning

The Federal Government on Wednesday said that the Second Niger Bridge is now ready for commissioning.

The government also assured that the epileptic power supply witnessed in recent times in different parts of the country would soon be a thing of the past, saying that power generation and distribution will improve despite the rains that have set in.

Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said that the contractor handling the Second Niger Bridge will hand it over on May 20.

Mohammed, who stood in for the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said that the bridge would be commissioned soon.

“The Second Niger Bridge is ready for commissioning. The contractor will hand it over on the 20th of this month, and it will be commissioned soon after”

Also speaking, the Minister of State for Power, Prince Jeddy Agba said, the FEC approved two memos for his ministry.

He said the first memo was the approval for the award of contract for the procurement of 25 numbers of 33 KV circuit breakers and 120 numbers of surge arrestors for systems use for the Transition Company of Nigeria (TCN).

Prince Agba said the contract value is in the neighborhood of N140 million.

“The contract had been awarded before, they are ongoing. But we asked for approval for revaluation due to price escalation and additional works. We’re building new sub stations in one of the places”, he said.

He said Council also approved the variation due to price escalation on the construction of the Dukanbo Shonga 132 KV double circuit transmission line.

“Shonga is in Kwara State and that line has been down for several years. So with this procurement, we should be able to revemp the station and you know it is an agro based area which services the Bacita Farm.

“The Shonga Farms Limited and the whole of that area has been in darkness for a long time. With this procurement we hope that in two months, we should have full power supply to those areas and restore farming and processing activities. The cost is N1.5 billion”.

Asked the reason behind the decline in power supply, he said, “You’ll agree with me that of late, we’ve had problems with gas supplies for generation companies. We just negotiated with gas supply companies and NNPC Limited to augment gas supplies to distributors at the going local rate.

“Gas was sold to them at export rate, and collection is made on domestic rates. So there was a differential. However, we had an agreement with the NNPCL and and natural gas companies to supply gas to GENCOs commencing from last week, and they are buying at local price not at the export price.

“So, with that we hope that in the very near future, in a week or two, power generation and supply should have improved.

“Distribution is going to be done by DISCOs which is why we are doing everything possible for the transmission company to have all the equipment necessary for effective transmission.

“We hope and I assure you that power generation and distribution as well as will improve despite the rains that have come in now”, the minister assured.