The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ogun

  • Ogun pays N1.6b pension to local govt retirees

    Ogun pays N1.6b pension to local govt retirees

    The Ogun Bureau of Local Government Pensions said it has disbursed N1.6 billion as monthly pensions patment to retired local government and primary school workers.

    The Permanent Secretary of the Bureau, Alhaji Ade Momodu, said this last week during an oversight visit by members of the Ogun House of Assembly Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.

    Momodu said the money was paid between January and September, adding that the money was paid from the monthly allocation the bureau received from the Joint Allocation Account Committee (JAAC).

    “The bureau has also paid N643.3 million as gratuities to retired local government staff, as well as primary school teaching and non teaching staff between January and September 2012.

    “This was paid from the state’s grant to Local Government Staff Pension Fund and the balance of statutory allocation from (JAAC) after monthly pension would have been paid,’’ he said.

    On the new contributory pension scheme, Momodu said it was introduced to remedy the shortcomings of the old scheme, explaining that a 7.5 per cent deduction is expected to be made from the salaries of all serving officers, while another 7.5 per cent of each officer is expected to be contributed by their employers.

    He said the bureau received 15 per cent deduction of the salaries of primary school teaching and non-teaching staff directly from Joint Allocation Account Committee on monthly basis.

    “The local governments are required to remit their own deductions directly to their pension fund administrators,’’ Momodu said.

    The Committee’s chairman praised the bureau for carrying out its assignment, saying, “I think you have done a good job, but l still want you to always make the collection of pensions easy for the retired local government officers, the primary school teaching and non-teaching staff,’’ Oluomo said.

  • 30 feared dead, scores of others injured in Ogun expressway accident

    30 feared dead, scores of others injured in Ogun expressway accident

    IT was another bloody day on the road yesterday.

    At least 30 persons were feared  dead in a crash, which involved four vehicles on the Mabolufon Junction near Ijebu-Ode on the Lagos-Benin Expressway in Ogun State.

    About 20 others were critically injured.

    Most of the victims were roadside traders and commuters waiting to board vehicles on the expressway.

    It was a gory spectacle.

    There were wreckages of wares, horrifying mangled human bodies and blood stains everywhere.

    At the time of filing this report around 7pm, the bodies of seven people, including that of an expectant mother, had been deposited at the morgue of the State Hospital in Ijebu–Ode.

    Doctors were battling to save the lives of more than 20 people said to be critically injured, eyewitnesses said.

    Officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), the police and the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE) were seen evacuating the dead and the injured to hospitals in Ijebu-Ode and the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital in Sagamu.

    An FRSC official declined to give the casualty figure.

    But TRACE Zonal Commander Tommy Hamza said 30 people died.

    The Ogun State Police Command explained how the crash occurred.

    Its spokemen, Muyiwa Adejobi, said the accident claimed many lives.

    He said it was caused by a trailer from Ikorodu, which reportedly entered the expressway at a time a truck and an unmarked bullion van were coming from Lagos.

    The truck and bullion van were said to be at close range and on top speed.

    Adejobi said as the truck driver from Lagos attempted to avoid ramming into the one from Ikorodu, it swerved and crashed into people by the roadside.

    He said the driver of one the trucks, Mr Adebayo Adedayo, has been arrested while the  youths in the community, acting on the belief that the police caused the accident, attempted to mob some police officers from the Obalende Division, when they arrive on the  scene.

    The police spokesman  said the police had no hand in the  accident.

    In Lagos, about 65 passengers last night escaped death when a LAGBUS commuter bus caught fire.

    The bus, an Ashok Leyland, with registration number XZ 564 AKD, with code number W0 17, is under the management of Nationwide, one of the  private operators of the BRT scheme.

    The bus reportedly left Oshodi and was heading to Ikorodu when it caught fire at 7. 47pm as it came out of the Maryland tunnel.

    The fire was said to have started from the engine.

    It was reportedly  discovered by the passengers in another vehicle. They called attention to the fire.

  • Ogun economic summit begins today

    Ogun economic summit begins today

    The Ogun State Government will today begin a three-day business summit in Abeokuta to rejuvenate the investment landscape and ensure that the state attains the status of an industrial hub in the West African sub-region.

    A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Trade and Investment, Mrs. Adenike Aboderin, said the summit, with the theme: Ogun State: Ready for Business/ Investment as a Catalyst for Economic Development, will hold at the Obas’ Complex in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.

    The statement said the summit would feature presentations by seasoned economic and investment analysts on various topics, such as The Role of Foreign Direct Investment and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) as a Tool for Economic Development; Investment and Opportunities in Ogun State, among others.
    It added that the event would be opened by Governor Ibikunle Amosun.

    The speakers, it said, would include Mr. Hamza Bello of the National Investment Promotion Council (NIPC); Ambassador E.O Oladeji; Mr. Yuanna Malo, from the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE); and Mr. Amos Sakaba, of the National Investment Promotion Council (NIPC).