The Federal Executive Council has approved an extension of the National Anti-Corruption Strategic Document from 2022 to 2026.
The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, made this known when he briefed State House correspondents on the outcome of the Council meeting,
The meeting of the council was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday.
He said the approval was granted following the presentation of a memorandum to the council to that effect.
Malami said: “Today, the office of the Attorney General of the Federation presented a council memo, seeking approval for the validation, adoption and extension of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy Document from 2022 to 2026.
“I am happy to report that the memo was taken, deliberated upon and eventually approved by the council.
”The implication of which is that we now have in place a new anti-corruption strategy policy document which is a product of collaboration among the justice sector and law enforcement agencies.”
According to the minister, this follows the chain of successes recorded in the fight against corruption, which is a hallmark of the Buhari administration.
“Today , we are recording successes in terms of convictions for corruption, to the extent that a single agency of government like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) within a year, (2022) we have recorded over 3000 convictions,” he said.
According to Malami, the Buhari administration had so far recovered over one billion dollars from its inception to date.
He added that the proceeds of the fight against corruption had been ploughed into the nation’s economy as a means of impacting the livelihood of Nigerians through programmes like the school feeding programme and tradermoni, among others.
Also addressing the correspondents on the outcome of the meeting, the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said the Council approved N14.09 billion as an augmentation of the contract sum for the construction of a road in Kano State
He said the contract was inherited from previous administrations, expressing the determination of the Buhari administration to complete the project.
“The Ministry of Works and Housing presented a council memo to get approval for the augmentation of the contract price for the completion of the Kano Western bye-pass which we inherited.
Fashola said: ”The project had essentially not been funded in previous budget years. We are now executing it by the Sukuk Bond.
”Council considered and approved the augmentation which was for N14.095 billion.”
Some of the items covered by the augmentation include the old amount for Value Added Tax (VAT), which was increased from 5 to 7.5 per cent.
“Others are the need to construct a flyover at Dawanau international market interchange and also the need to construct more hydraulic facilities.
“This is to help drain water especially in the parts of the road that pass through the city centres and towns and the council approved this,” he added.
According to Fashola, the road, when completed, will link the Kano-Maiduguri highway which is almost completed.
He also said the ministry sought the council’s approval to use the funds approved for the construction of a trailer park along the Enugu-Portharcourt highway, to complete the main carriage way.
‘’This is because of the litigation we are facing from the communities where the trailer park is to be located, whose land was acquired for the construction of the park.
”In order not to delay the completion of the main carriageway and also in order to optimise today’s pricing, we sought approval and council approved that based on the recommendation,” Fashola said.