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Tag: Ogun state

  • Alleged defamation: Firm demands apology from ex-Ogun commissioner

    A firm, Bond Investment and Holdings Limited, and its chairman, Chief Olabode Mustapha, have asked former Ogun State Commissioner for Finance Mr. Wale Oshinowo to retract alleged defamation and publish an apology in two national daily newspapers within seven days.

    This was contained in a statement issued on Tuesday by the lawyer to the firm, Chief Mobolaji Ayorinde, SAN.

    Bond Investment and Holdings Limited, owned by Mustapha, had accused the state government of a breach of agreement on Paris Club refund’s consultancy fee running into $11,740,362.00.

    It had threatened the state government with court action, if it failed to pay within seven days.

    The Governor Ibikunle Amosun administration, in a response to the demand for payment, refuted the claims by Bond Investments and Holdings Limited.

    Read Also: Man escapes assassination attempt in Ogun

    The state government, in a statement by Oshinowo, added that the government had no legal contract with the firm.

    It accused the company of plotting to rip off the state, upon the inauguration of Mustapha’s political ally, Prince Dapo Abiodun, on May 29.

    But, the firm’s lawyer claimed that the statement, titled: “Paris club refund: We do not owe Bode Mustapha’s consultancy firm- Ogun Govt” dated May 16, 2019 and issued by Oshinowo in reaction to the firm’s demand and published by some national newspapers had “lowered the estimation of our clients in the eye of the entire world and our clients must seek a redress”.

    The lawyer’s statement reads: “In the offensive publications, you said of our clients as follows: “Ogun State indigenes should be on their guards, as regards the finances of the state, as some unconscionable politicians will do everything possible to recoup their investment in the last governorship election from the public till”

    “The sudden resurrection of 2009 purported contract was a premeditated action, designed to scam the state government under the guise of an anticipated arbitration judgment. The Amosun Government… will not be a party to this orchestrated scheme to swindle the state.”

    The lawyer said the publications have been widely read by his clients’ business associates, political associates, friends and family many of whom have expressed their dismay at the contents of the media statement.

    ”We, therefore, have the instruction of our clients to demand that you retract the above statement and publish a written apology regarding same in at least two national daily newspapers within seven days of your receipt of this latter.

    “Furthermore, our clients demand from you that you pay the sum of N1 billion within the same seven days through our chambers.

  • Gov. Abiodun visits OOUTH after The Nation report

    Ogun State governor Dapo Abiodun has visited Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH) after an investigative report by The Nation Newspaper, detailing the pathetic conditions of the State-owned hospital.

    The Nation on Sunday reported about the deplorable state of the hospital.

    Titled OOUTH Sagamu: A Teaching Hospital in a mess, the report details tale of obsolete equipment, shortage of staffs, funding and the deplorable state of the emergency unit at the facility.

    The governor, in an unscheduled visit after The Nation report, decried the state of the hospital.

    He promised a team will be put in place to look at what can be done to salvage it.

    Abiodun, in an interview with newsmen shortly after the inspection, expressed dismay over the deplorable conditions of the facility once adjudged the best State-owned teaching hospital in Nigeria.

    Read Also: Community association greets Abiodun

    ‘I am putting up a team, after a final report from the Medical Director.

    “I don’t see how this place can produce good doctors; we shall go back to drawing board. The place is substandard.

    “This hospital is in depressing state. We shall look into facilities and personnel and would soon put up a team, after a final report from the Medical Director, on how to revive the lost glory of the hospital.

    “My administration will attach importance to health sector and we are going to turn round the institution for better,” the governor promised.

  • Aggrieved traders shut Ogun mall Buhari commissioned

    Scores of traders in Adire/ Kampala fabrics at the  Itoku market, Abeokuta,  have shut the newly inaugurated Adire/Kampala Mall inaugurated last month  by President Muhammadu Buhari in the twilight of Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s administration in Ogun state.

    The Mall was built by Amosun’s led administration, who governed the state for eight years on the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) but the traders – 169 of them, forcefully shut the mall at the weekend on grounds that Amosun, allegedly, allocated it to only his cronies and people suspected to be members of the Allied People’s Movement (APM).

    The traders who protested the illegal allocation of spaces  to people who are neither traders nor dealers in Kampala/Adire in Itoku market, also petitioned Governor Adedapo Abiodun and the Ogun State House of Assembly, praying the two to look into the lopsided allocations and  reverse it.

    Read Also: Traders kick as demolition of Agboju Market begins

    The aggrieved traders also vowed  to resist  the re-opening  of the mall  until  the alleged lopsidedness and injustice were addressed by the new government of Abiodun .

    The traders in the petition by  their legal adviser, Idowu Adepeju, from Idowu Adepeju and Co Chamber,  also accused former governor Amosun of giving the newly constructed  mall to people that were not traders at the market or those whose shops were demolished.

    They alleged that a sum of N10,000 was paid by each of them to obtain a form from the past government as a requirement for  allocation  of shops but lamented that no shops were allocated to them afterwards.

    The traders  called on the Governor and the  leadership of the State Assembly to review the allocation made by the immediate past government.

    The  petition reads: “My clients are  complaining of illegal allocation of the shops in the Adire Mall shopping Complex at  Itoku  market  to the members of Allied  Peoples Movement  by the Amosun-led administration on his last day in office, 28 th May, 2019.

    “The worst of it is that, many of the purported allottees were alloted four shops each, and they were not traders at all, neither were they known in Itoku market, while my clients (169 Kampala traders in Itoku market) were not allowed any shop at all.

    “Whereas, the same Amosun-led administration collected the sum of ten thousand naira from each of my clients.

    “It is this injustice that we passionately appeal to your excellency to correct.”

  •  Ogun sets up committee to review appointment of 75 Obas by Amosun

    The Ogun State government, on Friday, set up a committee to review the appointment, installation and promotion of traditional rulers in the state, carried out by the out-gone governor, Ibikunle Amosun, in the twilight of his administration.

    A total of 75 people were appointed and installed as coronet Obas by Amosun across  the state and this has continued to elicit condemnation, even from the state’s House of Assembly, which passed a resolution suspending the installed monarchs on the grounds that their appointment didn’t follow due process.

    Foremost businessman, kingmaker and politician, High Chief Alani Bankole, for instance, condemned Amosun’s installation of the 75 Obas in one swoop, describing the action as “pure madness.”

    He said, that, a governor is not elected to disrupt the social and cultural system of a people, lamenting that even in a community where the residents were less than 200, Amosun, allegedly, appointed an Oba there, wondering the rationale behind such decision.

    Bankole, who is the father of the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, noted that as a kingmaker, he has a duty to promote, protect and defend the sanctity and sacredness of the culture and traditions of Egba people, added that the incident was an abnormality.

    However, in a statement by the newly appointed Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the Governor, Kunle Somorin, and made available to The Nation, the state government stated that the Review Committee comprises His Royal Majesty Oba Kehinde Olugbenle, Olu of Ilaro and Paramount Ruler of Yewaland (chairman); His Royal Highness, Oba Yinusa Adekoya, the Dagburewe of Idowa; His Royal Highness, Oba Adewale Osiberu, the Elepe of Epe, Sagamu; High Chief Yinka Kufile, the Aro of Egbaland; Babajide Oyeti, former Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs; and Lanre Osota, the current Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, who will serve as the secretary to the committee.

    Read Also: Reversal of Amosun’s misdeeds in Ogun State

    The Committee’s Terms of Reference are to identify all the Obas and Chiefs whose appointments or promotions fall within the review period as contained in the recent resolution of the Ogun State House of Assembly and determine on a case-by-case basis, whether such appointment or promotion is in accordance with due process and extant laws of Ogun State.

    Others are to identify and address any other issue that the committee may consider relevant to its assignments and make appropriate recommendations as deemed necessary to the government.

  • Monarch backs Ogun Assembly on 75 Obas

    A monarch, Oba Ebenezer Akinyemi, has thrown his weight behind the recent nullification of the appointment of 76 monarchs in Ogun State.

    The affected monarchs were appointed between February and May 28 by former Governor Ibikunle Amosun.

    The Ogun State House of Assembly led by its Speaker, Hon Suraju Ishola Adekunbi, on May 31 passed a resolution nullifying all appointments and promotions of traditional rulers in the state by the immediate past administration.

    Speaking with The Nation, Oba Akinyemi, who is the Eselu of Iselu in the Yewa North Local Government Area of Ogun State, said the sacking of the  monarchs was in the best interest of the traditional institution in the state.

    He, however, observed that the Assembly should have consulted well the prescribed traditional authorities on the procedure to be adopted on the matter.

    ‘’ The power to recommend promotion as coronet monarch or oba resides in the traditional councils and paramount rulers. The requirement is that a letter of request would have been written to the council that a community headed by a baale (village head) is in need of an oba (monarch). The council in turn would consider and recommend the request to the appropriate ministry for approval and installation.

    Read Also: Ondo monarchs decry abuse of costumes

    ‘’For example, in my own area, there was no letter of request to the traditional council, or prescribed traditional authority, yet the immediate past state government upgraded the baales to monarchs. That’s an embarrassment to the obaship institution.

    ‘’The power to recommend the upgrade of a stool has been delegated to the traditional council and that means that the state government which delegates the power should not have exercised it without first withdrawing the delegated power from the prescribed traditional leadership in the affected community.’’

    Oba Akinyemi described as untrue the accusation of betrayal being peddled against Speaker Adekunbi for leading other lawmakers to sack the controversial monarchs.

    ‘’Speaker Adekunbi is not a betrayer. He is a good son of Yewaland and patriotic indigene of the state.

  • Assembly gives suspended Ogun chairmen ultimatum to submit financial report

    The feud between Ogun state House of Assembly and the suspended Local Government Chairmen took a keen dimension on Friday as the lawmakers directed the affected chairmen – 20 Local Government Chairmen and 37 Local Council Development Areas(LCDAs)- to submit their financial report to the House within a week.

    The financial report, they said, should include details or list of their respective performances in the last three years to the Assembly within one week.

    Speaker Suraju Adekunbi gave the directive during a meeting with the Council and LCDA Chairmen and Councillors at the Assembly Complex, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.

    The chairmen were at the House in respect of petitions against them over the handling councils’ finances but said the summon was persecutory orchestrated to “embarrass and humiliate” them.

    Adekunbi, who was represented by his Deputy, Kunle Oluomo, allayed their fears, saying the need to ensure fair hearing on petitions against some of them informed the summoning.

    The Speaker further stated the incoming 9th legislature has been empowered by the newly adopted South West standing order for State Houses of Assembly to continue the business of the 8th Legislature, upon its inauguration.

    Read Also: Reversal of Amosun’s misdeeds in Ogun State

    He added the financial report required of them should include financial spending, covering income and expenditures, revenue and details of projects executed, for immediate submission to the 9th Assembly.

    He also disclosed that the House had received 113 petitions on the suspended chairmen, explaining the interactive meeting was meant to give them fair hearing to defend allegations contained in the said 113 petitions submitted to the Assembly.

    But speaking with reporters shortly after the meeting with the legislators, the Chairman of Ado Odo Ota LCDA, Saheed Alagbe, said the Ogun Assembly under the leadership of Adekunbi was witch – hunting them.

    Alagbe said the House has visited the Local Governments twice in the last four years for their oversight function, wondering what the  latest action was meant to address, if not to “humiliate and embarrass” some of them.

    According to him, the Local Governments Chairmen submit monthly report to the ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and Office of the Attorney – General  of the state regarding their activities.

    He explained the Assembly expected them to give account of what they do know and wondered why the Speaker Adekunbi has chosen to end his tenure on “bad note” with summoning of Councils Chairmen

  • Community association greets Abiodun

    The Arepo Central Community Development Association (ACCDA), an umbrella development group comprising about 20 estates and communities in Arepo, has congratulated Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun, and his deputy Mrs. Noimot Salako-Oyedele, as they assume the mantle of leadership of the Gateway State.

    The ACCDA prayed that their “administration and tenure in office will usher Ogun State into its greater greatness”.

    A statement by its President, Prince Kehinde Adeyemo, said the election of the duo was a positive development and a big relief to the communities and citizens who have, in the last eight years, suffered lack of inclusive governance and poor infrastructural growth.

    ACCDA hailed Abiodun on his victory despite huge opposition. It urged him not to forget his electoral promises, which centered on transparency, development, inclusiveness and good governance, to fast-pace growth in the state rather than an “arrogant concentration of infrastructure in one region” of the state.

    Read Also: Abiodun: New dawn, new challenges in Ogun

    Adeyemo noted the plight of border communities like Arepo, stressing that the only access road which links the community to the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway has completely collapsed and become unmotorable, having being abandoned for over eight years and remains a death trap.

    “Though the road was said to have been awarded since 2006 to First August Construction Company during the first term of former Governor Ibikunle Amosun, there has been no efforts to mobilise the contractor to site, while the former governor turned deaf ears to all pleas by the Arepo community,” he noted.

    The president added the association had made several efforts, levying themselves and making monetary contributions to fix the road, not much had been achieved as the road requires government attention with holistic reconstruction.

    The road was built by former Governor Gbenga Daniel 15 years ago and has since gone into disrepair. The association president lamented that Arepo Community, which boasts of Journalists Estate, the first of its kind in Africa, and the whole of the world, has, rather than attract the attention and care of the state government, been carelessly and recklessly abandoned by an “unlistening governor”.

  • Crisis brews in Ogun RTEAN as exco members allege threats by chairman

    Executive members of the Ogun State chapter of Road Transport Employees Association Nigeria (RTEAN) have raised an alarm over alleged use of security agents to harass and intimidate them by their state chairman, Hammed Kuku.

    Eight of the executive members claimed that Kuku took the action because of their uncompromising stance against his alleged “incompetence, corruption, gross misconduct and abuse of office”.

    The RTEAN Secretary, Tiwalade Akingbade, who addressed reporters on Wednesday about the affairs of the association, listed Kayode Inaolaji, deputy state chairman (operation); Munirudeen Jimoh, deputy treasurer; Folami Folarin, vice chairman; Yahya Oriyomi, state auditor; Akeem Kolawole, state trustee; Kayode Kehinde, Kuto Motor Park chapel chairman and Akibu Titilayo (Efele), among others as executive members being threatened and harassed by Kuku.

    Akingbade said their ordeal began when they passed a vote of no confidence in Kuku’s leadership and his subsequent suspension in December by 42 members, including the state executive committee and chapel chairmen.

    Read Also: New Oba for Ogun community

    The secretary noted that in January 2019, the union’s chairman was asked to step down through a letter addressed to him because of the alleged “incompetence, abuse of office and corruption”.

    He lamented that rather than stepping aside; he remained adamant and kept hanging on to his position.

    According to him, the chairman has also resorted to threats as well as sending security agents after perceived opponents.

    Akingbade said petitions had been written to the Department of State Security (DSS) and Ogun State Police Command on the matter and appealed to them to wade into it before it degenerates into a serious crisis.

    However, Kuku denied the allegations, saying he neither issued threats nor used security agents to intimidate his state executive members.

    He also dismissed the allegations of corruption, incompetence, abuse of office and gross misconduct levelled against him by the executive members as “false and baseless”.

    Also, the Ogun State Police Command, when contacted, said none of its personnel harassed RTEAN executives or members, stressing that the command met with the combatants recently, where they were advised to use peaceful and legitimate procedure to settle their internal matter.

    Speaking through the command’s Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, it said every transport union has written constitution on how to change its leadership, advising that RTEAN executives and members should follow their own rules and take steps that could lead to a breakdown of law and order.

  • Gana to deliver Ogun Anglican Diocese Synod’s lecture

    A scholar and politician, Prof. Jerry Gana, is expected to deliver a lecture at the Third Session of the 10th Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Yewa, Ogun State, which begins from today to June 9, at the St. James Church, Oke-Odan, Ogun State.

    Gana, according to a statement, will deliver a lecture on the topic: “Soul Winning, the Kingdoms Business”. The event will also feature health talk and other aspects of church life.

    Read Also: Gana’s SDP endorses Atiku

    The synod with the theme: “Behold, We Found Him” John 1:45, will be presided over by the Bishop of Yewa, Rt Rev.  Michael Oluwarohunbi. About 250 delegates will attend the event, comprising both priests and the laity.

    The synod opening service, holding at 4p.m today, will feature the guest preacher, the Bishop of Kafanchan, Rt. Rev. Markus Dogo. Bishop Oluwarohunbi will deliver his charge to Christians and the nation at large on Friday by 11 am.

    The grand finale of the synod will hold on June 9, with a thanksgiving service. Rt Archbishop of Ondo Province and retired Bishop of Ondo, Most Reverend (Prof.) George Lasebikan will be the guest preacher.

  • Police arrest pipeline ‘vandals’ in Ogun

    The Ogun State Police Command has arrested two suspects – Tunde Ramoni, 45, and Yinka Olufowobi, 33, – for alleged vandalisation of petroleum products pipelines.

    The suspects were arrested by policemen attached to the Redeemed Camp Police Divisional headquarters last Thursday during a routine patrol on Simawa Road in Sagamu.

    Police spokesman Abimbola Oyeyemi, announced this on Tuesday in a statement in Abeokuta, the state capital.

    He said the suspects were sighted in a blue Toyota Camry car with registration number (Lagos) RC862AAA laden with petroleum product hidden in sacks.

    Read Also: Abiodun: New dawn, new challenges in Ogun

    Oyeyemi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said when the suspects sighted the police, they attempted to escape but the officers chased and apprehended them.

    The police spokesman added that when interrogated, the suspects confessed that they were coming from Oloparun Village via Ogijo where they got the product from vandalised pipeline.

    They also claimed getting the product in collaboration with accomplices in Ilara area of Ogijo.

    Police Commissioner Bashir Makama directed that the suspects be transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) for further investigation.