The Enugu State Executive Council has approved the award of contracts for 35 capital projects comprising the construction of roads, bridges, school buildings and boreholes across the 17 local government areas of the state.
Briefing journalists after a meeting of the State Executive Council, the commissioner for information, Dr. Godwin Udeuhele, said the contracts totalling about N2.1b stems from the government’s commitment to provide infrastructural development in the state, in spite of the country’s unhealthy financial situation.
Udeuhele explained that the projects, particularly roads, would be implemented in phases depending on the government’s financial capacity at each stage. He noted that they will, nonetheless, commence simultaneously in all the council areas.
Also approved was the sum of N41m for women empowerment projects. The government, through the projects, would train about 969 women and young persons to be drawn from across the state’s entire council areas with the aim of encouraging gender parity.
The Council also approved the reopening of Oakland Recreational Park, which had been shut by the state government after a facility malfunction resulted in the deaths of two children.
There would henceforth be a monthly evaluation of recreational parks and event centres in the state in order to ascertain their level of compliance with standard safety guidelines, the Council noted further. It was decided, also, that operators of such centres should have an insurance cover for users of their facilities.
The Executive Council’s spokesman disclosed that approval for the formation of Eminent Persons Forum had been given. The Forum, he added, will be a “platform for seasoned and experienced indigenes of the state to offer advice and suggestions to the police as regards solving emergent safety and security issues in the state and the country”.
Members of the Forum would comprise academics, retired public officers, traditional rulers and religious leaders.
