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Tag: Aregbesola’s aide

  • Aregbesola’s aide blasts Omisore over new road

    Aregbesola’s aide blasts Omisore over new road

    Osun State commissioner for innovation, science and technology, Engr. Remi Omowaiye, has taken time to educate and scold Senator Iyiola Omisore on his misleading allegation that the newly inaugurated standardised 2.8km “Workers’ Drive” was funded by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) as a blatant lie and miscarriage of the fundamental objective of the international organisation.

    The Ijesa-born technocrat turned politician made this disclosure during a radio programme monitored in Ilesa. Omowaiye who was once a consultant to UNESCO stated emphatically that “UNESCO’s strategic objectives don’t include construction of roads, and Omisore and his deranged cohorts should be fully aware by now, that the era of gullibility is over in Osun where in their usual antics spread falsehood, blackmail and cheap propaganda against the government of Aregbesola. Our people are wiser than them in all ramifications.”

    He further asserted, “this issue is about common sense and logical reasoning, if Omisore’s assertion were to be true, won’t UNESCO as a body have come physically for the inauguration of the project they sponsored? Why is it that till date there’s no erection of sign post by the same organisation on their involvement or contribution to the completion of the road? Why didn’t the construction project terminate at the entrance of the Osun groove?” he asked.

    “Geographically, the workers’ drive is off Osun groove, it is a stretch of Olaiya – Isale Osun – It’s Olokan road. To buttress this point, the Apostolic church whose building was demolished to pave way for the dualised road and a representative of the 147 persons compensated for their demolished properties gave words of commendation to the government and not UNESCO. This project is one of the motivational ways to continuously appreciate the workers of Osun for their patience, steadfastness and unshaken support to the APC-led administration and implementation of her people-oriented policies.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, the road was largely funded from the Omoluabi Infrastructure Conservation Fund 2012 as enacted by the Osun State house of assembly, upon which the governor though a letter dated November 27th 2015 sought approval for its usage. It is now understandably clear how Omisore and the PDP family feel each time they drive through the well-constructed, qualitative and standard roads, measuring over 1000kms spread across all the 30 LGAs of the state,” he added.

     

  • Why I was attacked at senator’s burial, by Aregbesola’s aide

    Why I was attacked at senator’s burial, by Aregbesola’s aide

    OSUN State Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s aide, who was attacked at the burial of the late Senator Isiaka Adeleke on Monday, Idiat Babalola, has explained why her attackers picked on her.

    She said she was attacked over unfounded rumours that she wanted to be deputy governor after Aregbesola’s tenure.

    Miss Babalola, who was attacked after arriving at the venue of the burial, said she sensed trouble when some  hoodlums started to make utterances, which suggested that her rumoured deputy governorship ambition was to checkmate the governorship ambition of the late senator, who had openly declared his intention to succeed Aregbesola.

    Miss Babalola, who served in the last cabinet as special adviser to the Governor on Federal Matters, said her attackers could not have been acting over anything against Aregbesola but simply on the local politics of Ede, where she also hails from just as the late senator.

    “I am a proud daughter of Ede and Uncle Isiaka has been a mentor and we never had any disagreement till the news of his death was broken to me while in Lagos on Sunday morning. I was heartbroken and immediately cut all my other engagements and came down to Ede from Lagos.

    “We worked together with uncle for the re-election of Governor Aregbesola in 2014 and for his own election into the Senate in 2015.

    “Those who masterminded the attacks on me are people with poor understanding of the relationship between us and who act based on their own political permutations only,” Miss Babalola said.

    She explained that she was at the burial with her father, Chief SOB Babalola, a prominent industrialist, who is also a friend to the late father of the late Senator Adeleke.

    She said it was unfortunate the unruly behaviour of the miscreants robbed a prominent son of Ede the state burial that he deserved and which the state government had planned for him.

    “That cannot be the best way to honour the memory of Uncle Adeleke. Senator Adeleke was a man of his people; a lover of peace and a political associate of Governor Aregbesola. Senator Adeleke could not have countenanced such misconduct in his lifetime,” she added.

    Babalola thanked Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun, whom she said dropped the honour of being a governor to practically engage the hoodlums not to carry out their more dastardly plots.

  • Bailout: Aregbesola’s aide says disbursement was transparent

    Bailout: Aregbesola’s aide says disbursement was transparent

    An aide to the Governor of Osun State, Oluremi Omowaiye has said the state can’t be blackmailed on the disbursement of the bailout fund from the federal government because the N34 billion given to it was disbursed transparently.
    Speaking during a radio programme monitored in Ibadan on the recent protest retirees to the assembly complex, he explained that a request of N64.4 billion to cover salaries, allowances, pensions and gratuities and N23.9b were requested to offset the outstanding arrears of salaries, allowances, pension and gratuities of local governments workers by state but the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) only approved and released N25.87 billion to cover just salaries and allowances of state workers, leaving out pension and gratuities while only N9.117b was approved and released by the CBN for arrears of salaries, allowance also leaving out local government pension and gratuities just as it was done for their counterparts in the state.
    He explained further that no fund was released for pension and gratuity by CBN despite the fact that it was included in the request of N64,327,492,947.01 for state workers and N25,871,920,000 for local government workers.
    Omowaiye said to further display high level of transparency in the disbursement of the loan, the state government and the labour unions agreed to supervise the disbursement in line with the CBN guideline, an apportionment of a committee headed by the first NLC President, Comrade Hassan Sunmonu, with labour unions and other stakeholders as members to monitor the fund and the revenue from other sources.
    He added that despite the fact that pensioners were not captured in the bailout fund released to the state Governor Rauf Aregbesola magnanimously ensured that both state and local government pensioners benefited from the bailout fund.
    He further stressed that It was important that he debunk insinuations aimed at blackmailing Aregbesola’s administration that bailout was mismanaged.

  • My father’s murder was political, says Aregbesola’s aide

    My father’s murder was political, says Aregbesola’s aide

    For eight years Kareem Fola Olajoku, Senior Special Assistant to Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola on General Matters, has remained in agony. Reason: the murder of his beloved father, Alhaji Sulaimon Hassan-Olajoku, a major supporter of Aregbesola’s governorship ambition on May 15, 2005.

    The slain Hassan-Olajoku, whom the governor once described as “a major financier of my campaign and left no one in doubt as to his support for and loyalty to our cause,” was gruesomely assassinated at Gbongan Junction in the presence of his teenage daughters and wife. It was a day after he organised a ceremony in Ifon-Osun to market the governor the people.

    “But eight years should be long enough to forget such an experience,” this reporter said. Kareem’s voice quaked in emotion in response: “How can I forget someone who was more that a father to me and our entire family? He was a man we could count on for anything. He was taken away from us at a period my siblings and I needed him most because we were very young at that time. He was a perfect gentle man; a strong grassroots politician, tax consultant, and a loving father. Words cannot explain how I feel. Sometimes, I wished it was just a dream that would soon fade away. Who on earth would shoot a man 24 times or more? That was pure assassination! They wanted him dead.”

    The governor’s aide seethed with indignation when he wondered why the police were yet to give his family any clue about those who killed his father and their motive, but was profuse in praises for Aregbesola who remained a dependable pillar of support for the bereaved family. “I appreciate our governor’s efforts to ensure that my siblings and I do not suffer as a result of this horrible experience. He has been our pillar of support; we can’t thank him enough. I also commend him for immortalising my father by building a mega park, named Hassan Olajoku Park, at the Gbongan Junction, where my father was brutally murdered. Ogbeni Aregbesola is a great and humane man who is rare to find on this earth. He has been there for us,” Olajoku said.

    He declared that his father was murdered by the anti-progressive elements in the state, adding: “We all know the truth. My father was killed when the political scene in Osun State was tense; and we all know it was a political killing. Some people’s thirst for power shows they are myopic. But in the end, the same power which they thought was their birth right was taken away from them by God and the judiciary. Where are they today? They didn’t want the then opposition party to redeem the mandate they stole.”

    When reminded that Osun State would soon hold local council elections he replied: “ACN in Osun State has shown the world that we are working. Have you not heard of the Opon-Imo, Ipad look-alike tablets that are being distributed to secondary school pupils in the state and which contain all their syllabuses and subjects? The computer system is even solar- powered. Osun State is moving and I can tell you that in any election, our great party will win all the available seats. The forthcoming council election will be another litmus test for us as a government, but we are fully prepared to win all the seats as we had done in past elections. This is because the governor has touched the lives of all Osun people positively, and they are happy for it.”

    He spoke further: “Aregbesola’s government is the best administration Osun State had had since its creation in 1996. Before the coming on board of the administration in 2010, flood destroyed lives and property in the state so much that people lost their means of livelihood and their loved ones, but now, the story is different. Before now, roads in the state were in dilapidated conditions, but now, the governor has been roundly commended for his good works, so much that he has even been nick-named “Oba baba ona”, meaning, “king of the roads repairs.” Is it the Oyes (Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme), which employed over 20,000 youths, thereby drastically reducing unemployment in the state? Or, is it the agricultural sector he revitalised by providing arable lands and funds to farmers to ease their age-long burden of lack of government’s support? The governor has redefined governance in the state.”

  • Aregbesola’s aide: We’re tolerant of opposition

    Aregbesola’s aide: We’re tolerant of opposition

    Senior Special Assistant on General Matters to Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State Mr. Folawiyo Olajoku spoke with Assitant Editor DADA ALADELOKUN on the challenges confronting the administration.

     

    What is your assessment of Aregbesola Administration in the last two years?

    I think the people of the State of Osun are in a better position to assess our governor and his administration. However, one should give the administration pass mark over his performance in the last two years against the backdrop of what he met on the ground, when he took over in November, 2010. His laudable achievements especially in agriculture, health, education, housing and roads are there for all to see. His employment-generating programmes are eradicating poverty and building a sound and healthy society. He has excelled.

    In specific terms, how has the administration fought the infrastructure battle in the state?

    In appreciation of the governor’s performance, the people of the state have nick- named him Oba-Ona, which literary means ‘king of road construction’. There is no part of the state that has not witnessed massive road construction, in a desperate bid to rehabilitate the dilapidated roads. In the area of education, Aregbesola Administration launched the O-SCHOOL project, which aim is to construct world-class modern school buildings and we can see the replica which has been constructed in the Oke-Fia area of Osogbo, the state capital. The same school buildings are currently been built across the state. His administration should also be applauded for its immense contributions towards the health sector, which has experienced massive transformation and the introduction of free health care and free eye glasses for patients.

    One of the cardinal programmes of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) is rural development. How do you assess the governor on this?

    The governor has particularly excelled in this area. The state is primarily an agrarian society that is favoured with fertile soil, which supports a diverse range of agricultural products, both cash and food crops – yam, maize, cassava, millet, plantain and rice. Cocoa and palm produce are our main cash crops. At the current production level, Osun is second only to Ondo State in cocoa production and all this could only be achieved with the continuous provision of enabling environment to farmers in state. The state provides lands and cash to farmers to boost increased food production with a view to making Osun the food basket of the Southwest and Nigeria as a whole. The O-REAP (Osun Rural Enterprises and Agricultural Programme) is a policy framework to precipitate a revolution in the agricultural sector. The Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Wale Adedoyin, has been working hard to drive the government’s target of increased agricultural productivity and employment generation.

    What programme has the governor implemented to frontally address the needs of youths?

    In line with Aregbesola’s people-centred policy, he has inaugurated the OYES (Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme) on his 100 days in office, which employed 20,000 youths and reduced unemployment in the state. Therefore, there is a proportionate decrease in crime. Even, the World Bank endorsed it, and according to the Sector Leader of the bank on Human Development and Task Leader on youth empowerment and social support operation, Professor Foluso Okunmadewa, the state government has achieved a milestone in the area of engaging youths in community development and the world bank is looking into areas to help the government to expand the scope of OYES.

    What is the government doing to attract both local and foreign investments into the agrarian state?

    Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has been attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), into the state. He opened bilateral talks with the Germans and even signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with a Korean firm, Synctop Corporation Limited, for the establishment of agricultural company in the state. The MOU, which was signed under the green wealth agricultural project, was expected to generate 127,000 employment opportunities and boost the economy.

    How would you assess the governor’s disposition to the opposition in the state?

    The governor has been working for the people and that explains why his party swept all the seats in the last general elections in 2011. So, I can say confidently that our government is strong, transparent and vibrant. For the governor, the wish of the people would always come first. The Peoples Democratic Party spent seven and a half years in power in this state and not a single achievement was recorded by the party. On the contrary, and in just two years of the Aregbesola Administration, the state has witnessed massive transformation in all sectors.

    Is there any reason to suggest that the governor, who is a Muslim, is intolerant of other religions as alleged by some people of the state?

    The governor’s cabinet has a larger percentage of Christians. We are the only state in Nigeria which prays in all the three religions at any event or function. How can anyone say the governor is intolerant of other religions when we all see him at church functions dancing and singing praises, even the Christian way?