Abuja — The Federal Executive Council yesterday approved contract for the procurement of 116 cars of Peugeot brand from the Peugeot Automobile Nigeria Limited in the sum of N504, 191, 362.50.

Another contract approved by the FEC was the procurement of 40 locally manufactured armoured personnel carriers of Prowler brand with accessories for the Nigeria Police Force at a cost of N2.03 billion. The contract sum takes care of two-week training of policemen who will use them and two years back-up spare parts.

The FEC also endorsed the technical audit of the Ajaokuta Steel Company estimated to cost N640.4 million while another audit of the National Iron Ore Mining Company, Itakpe, will cost N256.5 million as approved by the FEC. This follows the termination of the concession of the two plants granted to Global Infrastructure Holdings on account of alleged assets stripping.

The consultancy services contract (phase I) of the Shagamu-Benin-Asaba dual carriageway in the sum of N147.09 million was also approved by the council.

The council also approved the award of contracts for 20 highway projects under the Federal Road Network Rehabilitation Programme, in the sum of N71 billion. N21 billion of the sum is already captured in the 2009 budget.

The projects cover all the six geopolitical zones of the country.

A breakdown of the projects and cost per zone shows: North-central, two projects in the sum of N5.7 billion; North-west, two projects in the sum of N9.7 billion; North-east, four projects for N10 billion; South-south, four projects N9.7 billion; South-east, four projects in the sum of N20.1 billion and South-west four projects in the sum of N15.9 billion.

The government had argued that the state of disrepairs of some of these roads calls for urgent need for rehabilitation.

The minister of works noted that road projects were going on in all the geopolitical zones of the country and contractors had been mobilised to site.

He also appealed to Nigerians to exercise patience as road work was not as easy as other forms of contract.

In order to curb the influx of smuggled goods into the country, the EFCC also approved the award of contract for the purchase of arms and ammunition for the Nigeria Customs Service. The contract was awarded to the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) in the sum of N382, 236,064.00 .

The approval was given in view of the important role the Nigeria Customs Service plays in revenue generation and to enable it meet up the target set for it. Minister of finance, who presented the memo before council, noted, "The inadequacy of functional operational vehicles, to a large extent, has served as a constraint to the revenue generation capacities of the Nigeria Customs Service and also poses potential threat to the realisation of not only the 2009 revenue target, but to subsequent ones."

Meanwhile, the minister of defence also presented a memo on the urgent need for the procurement of a fast patrol craft for the Nigerian Navy to facilitate effective patrol of the Nigerian maritime borders and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), council approved the award of contract for the procurement of additional 1 upgraded 17m Manta, MK 111 ASD fast patrol craft for the Navy, in favour of $8.8 million, payable in naira at the prevailing exchange rate at the time of payment, with a completion period of four months.

The council also approved the purchase of five fairly used Supa Puma helicopters from France to be deployed in the area of air support for Nigerian troops in peacekeeping operations, as well as Air support surveillance and reconnaissance in the Niger Delta. The importation will be done under government to government contract in the sum of £68.6 million, payable in naira at the prevailing exchange rate at the time of payment, with completion period is six months.