The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved N13.3 billion for the provision of a group life assurance scheme for the Nigerian Police Force (NPF).

The Minister of Police Affairs, Maigari Dingyadi, made this known when he addressed State House correspondents on the outcome of the Council meeting presided by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday in Abuja.

According to him, the scheme will cover 318,319 police officers and men for the year 2022-2023.

He said: “I submitted one very important memo to the Federal Executive Council, which has to do with the award of contract for the engagement of insurance underwriters and brokers for the coverage of group life assurance scheme for the Nigerian Police Force for the year 2022-2023 in the total sum of N13,321,742,038.83.

“This is going to cover our Police population of 318,319, officers and men. The Federal Executive Council has graciously approved this memo and it will take effect from Oct. 26, 2022, to Oct. 26, 2023.”

According to the minister, the essence of the group life assurance scheme is to encourage the police officers and men who have been working hard to ensure the security of lives and property across the country.

Also addressing the correspondents on the outcome of the FEC meeting, the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, revealed that the Council approved N3.4 billion for the restoration of power supply to Maiduguri, Borno.

He said: “As you are aware, Maiduguri got disconnected from the national grid due to activities of insurgents. They have been disconnected for over 24 months.

“About nine months ago or thereabout, we were able to supply Maiduguri through an old line which we resuscitated through the effort of the Borno State Government’s Rural Electrification Agency and the Transmission Company of Nigeria.

“They resuscitated a single line of 33KV from Damaturu, Yobe State, and through that we took a very small quantity of electricity which could only give electricity on the 11KV line.

“So, we are now trying to supply through another new line, a double circuit 33KV which can take up to around 40 Megawatts from the Damaturu 330 substation.

This is at a cost of N3,164,293,880 plus N250,000 million for security and other logistics.

The minister further revealed that 23.9 million dollars was approved for the construction of power substations in Geidam, Yobe, and Zing in Taraba.

He further disclosed that his ministry got approval for the construction of five multimillion dollar one line power substations in Birnin Kudu, Babura and Kazaure in Jigawa; Nguru, Yobe; Oro, Kwara and a 22 kilometre transmission line passing through Birnin Kudu- Misau-Ningi–Azare in Jigawa and Bauchi States. 

(NAN)