The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ogbomoso

  • Ogbomoso agog for monarch’s birthday, coronation anniversaries

    Ogbomoso agog for monarch’s birthday, coronation anniversaries

    As preparations peak for the 90th birthday and 42nd coronation anniversary of the Soun of Ogbomosoland, Dr.  Oladunni Oyewumi Ajagungbade III on May 27, the town has been wearing a new festive mood.

    It will begin with traditional festivals of egungun, oro and the Hunters’ Guild.

    This is to be followed by traditional homage call on the Soun by Baales and chiefs of Ogbomoso Traditional Council on Friday, May 27.

    Jumat prayers hold at Ogbomoso Central Mosque.

    There will also be charity visits to Ogbomoso Blind Centre and Kersey Motherless Babies Home on Saturday 28th May.

    To round off the celebrations, thanksgiving service holds at First Baptist Church Oke’Lerin, Ogbomoso on Sunday 29th May, 2016.

  • LAUTECH to graduate 10,317, 105 first class, 112 Ph.D

    LAUTECH to graduate 10,317, 105 first class, 112 Ph.D

    The Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Oyo State, will on Friday graduate 10,317 students and  conferred first class honours on 105 graduands and 112 doctorate degrees on Post graduates students at its 13th convocation ceremony.

     

    The Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof Adeniyi Gbadegesin disclosed this while addressing journalists at press conference held at the newly built TETFUND hall, LAUTECH, Ogbomoso, on Wednesday.

     

    Gbadegin disclosed that this year’s convocation ceremony commenced on April 15 and will end on Saturday April 23, with the university conferring honours on a total of 10,317 first degrees on persons for the award of degrees in both 2013/2014 and 2014 and 2014/2015 academic sessions.

     

    According to him, 105 make first class honours; 50 student’s in 2013/14 and 55 students in 2014/15 academic sessions, while for the first time LAUTECH crossed the 100 landmark for doctorate degrees with 112 students for Ph.D.

     

    Other categories  Gbadegesin said  includes; 2,434 students in the second class upper division, 5,527 students in Second class Lower Division, 1,692 in the Third Class Division, 122 in the Third Class Division and 437 in the unclassified category.

     

    The university don also disclosed  that Ige Olufemi Elijah of the Department of Mathematics and Sanni Saidat Abidemi of the department of Statistics emerged best graduating students for 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 respectively.

     

    Ige emerged with 4.85 Cumulative Grade Point of Average (CGPA), while Saidat emerged over all best student of the institution this session with 4.88 CGPA.

     

    Furthermore, the institution will also graduates a total of 14,349 individuals in postgraduates degrees on Saturday, April 23.

     

    On Thursday, April 21, the institution will hold its Convocation titled “Maintaining quality University of Technology in the 21st century: Leveraging globalisation, sustainability and technology” by an erudite Professor and Dean of the College of Management, University of Wisconsin-Stout, USA, Professor Abel Femi Adekola.

     

    He promised that the institution will not rest on its oars, that LAUTECH is not just creating the best in academics but the very best in our chosen specialisation of thinking for our nation.

     

    “As a University of Technology, the onus is on us to continue to develop ideas and systems that would steadily propel the country to greatness to such an extent that we will become self sustaining in food production, technological advancement and whatever other thing that enlists us among the comity of developed countries of the world.

     

    “More than anything else, we are believers in the “can do right” and are emboldened to rededicate ourselves to further drive the vision that will re-position our University as ‘primus inter pares’.”

     

    Gbadegesin further informed that the university has also “sought and got the approval of the National University Commission (NUC) for a licence for the Opena nd Distance Learning. The NUC, having been convinced beyond reasonable doubt that the University has the capacity to run the programme, granted the approval to enable us run Bachelor of Science Degree (B.Sc) programme in computer science through Open and Distance Learning while approval for other degree programme is being processed.”

  • 14 die in accidents in Ogbomoso

    FOURTEEN people  died  yesterday  in two accidents in Ogbomoso, Oyo State.

    The first accident, which occurred on the Iluju-Ikoyi Road, involved a motorcycle and  a car.

    Two people died instantly and others were injured.

    In the other accident, 12 people died on the  Ogbomoso-Oyo Road.

    The victims were mostly traders coming from the North to Lagos.

    An eyewitness said an  articulated vehicle, carrying packaged products, veered off the Oyo Road.

    The bodies have been deposited in a hospital morgue  in Oyo.

    A Federal Road Safety Corps  Official (FRSC) said:  “ There were two accidents in Ogbomoso yesterday.

    The first occuered   at Iluju  and the other  on the Ogbomoso-Oyo Road.

    “Fourteen people  have died  while some are injured”

  • Seven die in Oyo-Ogbomoso road crash

    No fewer than seven people were killed yesterday when a commercial bus and an articulated vehicle ran into each other on the Ogbomoso-Oyo road.

    A report by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) indicated that many other occupants of the bus sustained various degrees of injuries in the accident.

    A witness, who gave his name as Tayo, told NAN that the accident happened when an Ilorin-bound commercial bus overtook a sport utility vehicle and tried to manoeuvre its way back to its lane but failed.

    “When I got to the accident scene some moments after it occurred, people were assisting the accident victims,” he said.

    He said that the driver of the bus did not sustain any injury.

    NAN gathered that six people died on the spot while another victim died on the way to the hospital.

    Spokesman of the Oyo Police Command Mr. Addekunle Ajisebutu said he had not been briefed by the divisional police officers in Oyo town and Ogbomoso.

    Also yesterday, a truck laden with 33,000 litres of fuel was said to have somersaulted ‎in the Taki area of Ogbomoso and emptied its contents in a gutter.

    According to another witness, who preferred anonymity, many people rushed to the scene to scoop fuel.‎

    Security men were said to have been dispatched to the scene to prevent any casualty.

  • Ogbomoso: road terrorism

    SIR: The incessant accidents on Oyo-Ogbomoso expressway have generated a debate as to whether they are rituals of fate or results of road terrorism. The two historic cities at each end of the road are ruled by powerful monarchs with political prowess: The Alaafin of Oyo and the Soun of Ogbomoso. The town of Ogbomoso serves as home to one of the nation’s foremost universities, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH). The road is a link between the Northern and Southern parts of the country, reflecting the economic importance of the road. These obvious advantages have, however, not shown commendable influence on the state of the road. The road has remained in a deteriorating state for years, with increasing pot-holes, unimaginable faults , recorded accidents, hence, it is been referred to as a ‘death -trap’.

    According to the Federal Road Safety Commission, Oyo state recorded the highest number of road fatalities in 2011 and the Oyo-Ogbomoso road was a major contributor to this figure. The casualties on this road have not reduced, as it continues to claim lives of students, traders and other travellers. The 50-kilometre-long road was meant to be included in the Ibadan-Ilorin road construction project executed by the previous administration, but it was skipped. The road construction work, which started from Ibadan to Oyo, was continued at the other end from Ogbomoso to Ilorin. Former Minister for Works under the administration, Mr. Mike Onalememen had promised the construction of the Oyo-Ogbomoso expressway, saying, “the road is a section of route A1, one of the four North- South arterial highways in the sense that Ibadan-Oyo-Ogbomoso-Ilorin Road is basically a corridor that links southern and northern parts of the country, which is very important in the movement of goods and services, particularly from Lagos ports and industrial complexes, to the northern Nigeria.” But the road remains in its inherited state with no signs of construction work.

    The width of most parts of the dual-carriage road is now visibly short of the standard 7 metres as the road has been significantly trimmed at the sides by erosive agents over the years. What has become most minatory about the road is the volume of heavy-duty vehicles transporting different materials across the country. These vehicles are the major causes of accidents on this road. The drivers of these vehicles are usually reckless even with their knowledge of the bad condition of the road. Poorly calculated overtaking, vehicle control failure, among others, are activities that lead to regular mishaps on the road. Other times, when these vehicles are not involved in accidents, they break down and it usually takes a long time to tow them off the road. This results in traffic jams and possible attacks on road users.

    Something needs to be done. A proper rehabilitation of the Oyo-Ogbomoso road should be one of the important assignments of the current administration. The Ogbomoso- Oyo road project is overdue for execution.

     

    • Ibironke Oluwatobi

    ibironkeoluwatobi@gmail.com

     

  • Tyranny of oil marketers in Ogbomoso

    SIR:Independent oil marketers in Ogbomoso have become a clog on the wheel of progress in the town, and the earlier men of conscience make their voices heard the better for the town and its economy. As at the time of writing this report, these shylocks have stopped selling fuel and making life difficult for the people, adding to the agony which the economic recession in the country had imposed on the people. The cartel has formed a parallel government in the town and determining the spate of business.

    In actual fact, since multinational oil companies like Total, Oando, Texaco, Master Energy, and even NNPC have closed shops or working skeletally, independent oil marketers have been employing their majority and unity to cheat the customers. Instead of selling at the normal price of N87 per litre, they sold between N110 and N105. In spite of that, they still ration the selling of the products. At times, when the task force visits the town, the visit is used as an excuse not to sell at all as being witnessed at the moment. Meanwhile, they have fuel in their stations.

    In the past, people believed that a prominent traditional ruler in the town, who doubled as an oil dealer was behind the invincibility and power wielded by the marketers. However, having leased out his filling station to the NNPC, the situation has not changed. There is no doubt that people are fed up with the murderous activities of the marketers and no one can say precisely what the reaction of the people will be if the actions are not checked; this makes the appeal to the concerned authorities imperative.

     

    • Abdulsalam Olalekan,

    Ayedaade, Ogbomoso.

  • LAUTECH: ASUU threatens strike over unpaid salaries

    LAUTECH: ASUU threatens strike over unpaid salaries

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), LAUTECH chapter has asked Governors Abiola Ajimobi and Rauf Aregbesola to pay the outstanding 13-months salaries owed workers of the Institution without further delay.

    The union also threatened industrial crisis should the workers’ arrears of salaries not paid by the two owner-states.

    The academic union claimed that staff of the institution are finding it difficult to survive while nobody is willing to loan money to them to meet their basic needs.

    The Chairman of ASUU, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Dr Oyebamiji Oyegoke stated this while speaking to newsmen in Ibadan Tuesday saying that the institution workers are facing untold hardship due to what he called abdicating their responsibilities culminating in workers being owed 13 months salaries.

    The union boss said the call became imperative in view of the Bail-out being granted to states by President Mohammadu Buhari which Oyo State is a beneficiary.

    While calling for judicious utilization of the funds to boost the lives of the workers, Dr Oyegoke demanded regular payment of salary from the monthly government subventions and not from the internally generated revenue which is supposed to be used for other welfare and development projects.

    Dr Oyegoke stated that the; “two‎ owner states jointly owe the university workers 13-month salaries forcing the university to keep the system running via financial interventions”

    While lamenting that there are no visible projects on the campus in the last five years, Dr Oyebamiji said the projects visible on the campus are products of ASUU struggles and TETFUND interventions‎.

    Warning of imminent industrial disharmony between the workers and the governments of the two owner-states, ASUU wondered whether Governors Abiola Ajimobi and Rauf Aregbesola ‎ forgot their promise to “spend the necessary monies on LAUTECH to turn it into a model university among its peers”

    According to ASUU, the Oyo and Osun governments have abdicated their responsibilities of providing funding as expected for the university whether capital or recurrent.

    While frowning at the two governors, ASUU called for a sustained response towards capital projects in the university while asking for definite payment of owed salaries as well as the approval of payment of Academic Earned Allowances to the deserving workers.

     

  • Ogbomoso needs traffic wardens

    SIR: The role of traffic wardens in the ever busy and congested areas especially juntions in the country is essential as many lives have been saved by the deployment of these officials to the affected places. Every government is there to protect lives and property of its citizens.

    It is my humble opinion that traffic wardens should be deployed to the crossroads in Califonia/Idioro area of Ogbomoso metropolis which is ever busy with human and vehicular movements. Motor accidents have claimed many lives of pedestrians while attempting to cross the major road. Students, traders and other workers converge on the area from 5 am to 8am to catch the early morning motorcycles and commercial vehicles to their various destinations. The gridlock caused by the insistence of motorcyclists and vehicle drivers to outwit one another is usually made worse by the many articulated vehicles,fuel tankers and other heavy duty vehicles plying the Ibadan/Ogbomoso/Ilorin federal highway which the cross roads join on both sides. Human and vehicular traffic become heavier in the evening between 5 pm and 7.30 pm when the aforementioned people are returning home with loads of personal belongings and goods bought for sale.

    We commend the Divisional Police Officer, Nigeria Police,Ogbomoso South LGA for deploying traffic wardens to the similar crossroads in Akande market/Waskia axis of Caretaker, Ogbomoso. We urge him to do same for Califonia area to obviate dangers of loss of lives.

     

    • Adelani Olawuyi,

    Odooba-Ogbomoso

     

  • Military impunity in Ogbomoso

    SIR: The attention of the military authorities is being drawn to the menace that some men of the Nigerian Army drafted to Ogbomoso for election purposes have constituted to the people of the town. Barely over a week now in the town, they have taken over the functions of Vehicles Inspection Officers, FRSC, police and forestry officers, all in a bid to extort money from members of the public. Not only that, un-cooperating ones are punished severely.

    I wept for this nation on my way to Igbeti on Tuesday, March 24, 2015, when I saw military men flogging hapless old men at express junction and a few kilometers after Ogbomoso along Ogbomoso-Igbeti road. The question that came to my mind was to querry the motive of the people that drafted those men to Ogbomoso. What came to my mind was to agree with those that opposed the drafting of the military for election purposes. It is disheartening that sixteen years into democratic rule, our government could not conduct civil matters without involving the military.

    The roles of military in safeguarding territorial integrity of this nation and maintenance of peace during election period are highly acknowledged. However, assaulting Nigerians they are paid to protect on flimsy excuses and forcing them to part with their hard earned money are condemnable and reproachable and should be stopped.

     

    • Ruth A. Amole, Alekuwodo, Osogbo, Osun State.

     

  • Four arrested with 500 PVCs in Ogbomoso

    Vigilant residents of Ogbomoso in Oyo State yesterday nabbed four occupants of a vehicle for allegedly being in possession of 500 Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs).

    The development created pandemonium at the Orita-Sekoni part of the town.

    Police officers had to shoot sporadically to rescue the suspected electoral thieves from irate mobs.

    An eyewitness told The Nation that the suspects, who occupied a Honda Accord car AR 892 LUY, were stopped by residents on a tip-off.

    The timely arrival of police officers saved the suspects from being lynched.

    It was gathered that only the driver of the vehicle managed to escape the ire of the residents.

    Another eyewitness said the suspects were known political associates of an Ibadan-born governorship candidate of a leading political party.

    The Police Public Relations Officer, Adekunle Ajisebutu, confirmed the incident but said the suspects were in possession of 10 Temporary Voters Cards (TVCs) and four PVCs.

    He added that only one person identified as Rotimi Okediji was caught and arrested.