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Tag: Ogun

  • ‘Lagos Ibadan standard gauge ready in Feb’

    A test run of the 45km Lagos Abeokuta standard gauge from in Iju, Lagos and terminate in Abeokuta will begin by February, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation Mr Fidet Okhiria said on Wednesday.

    Speaking at Ijoko, Ogun State during the routine inspection of the $1.7 billion project, Okhiria who represented the Minister of Transportation Mr Rotimi Amaechi, said by February 6, the corporation will begin a test run of the tracks.

    He said the first phase of the project, which is to link Lagos with Abeokuta by rail, is on course, adding the federal government will first deliver on it while work progresses on linking Abeokuta with Ibadan, thereby completing the Lot II of the Lagos to Kano standard gauge project.

    He said the contractor – China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation- has fully laid 38 kilometers of tracks from Kajola (km 41 to Abeokuta, km 79) while efforts to get the project from Kajola to Iju, is on course and would be achieved by February.

    According to him: “The contractors have said their equipment could lay 1.5 kilometres of tracks per day. That means that they could achieve the 10km distance between Kajola and Iju within seven days and we can start the test run of the tracks latest February 7.”

    He expressed satisfaction at the speed of the contractor, adding with the civil works between Kajola and Iju completed, work could go on unhindered on the laying of tracks.

    Okhiria, who led the media and other members of the project monitoring committee to ride on first class train coaches on the tracks between Kajola and Abeokuta, expressed satisfaction on the pace of the project.

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    He said two first class full air-conditioned coaches have been drawn from the Itakpe-Warri standard gauge corridor to service the new rail line.

    According to him, with a speed of 150 km/h, Lagos-Ibadan could be achieved within one hour, adding that such would have a tremendous impact on housing stock and congestion witnessed in the nation’s urban centres.

    Okhiria said the federal government has placed order for 30 locomotives and coaches and wagons to further boost modernisation of the fixed and rolling stocks of the railway corporation.

    He also praised the transparency of the compensation plans of the government which according to him has ensured the peaceful environment within which the contractor has been operating.

  • EFCC, ICPC should investigate 2016 audit report – CSO

    A civic organization, Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative (PLSI) on Wednesday called on the anti-graft agencies the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission to investigate the 2016 Audit Report.

    The organization stated that N2.97 billion meant for 30 critical projects in the country was unaccounted for as stated in the report.

    Executive Director of PLSI, Olusegun Elemo, stated these at the launch of its Independent Findings of priority projects captured in the 2016 audit report.

    Elomo stated that the organization monitored 19 priority projects in 12 states captured under the report this year and found out that most of them have been abandoned.

    According to him, ten out of the projects have been abandoned even when monies have been paid for them.

    He noted that only one out of the 19 projects had been completed when PLSI visited the states this month.

    The monitored states by PLSI include; Ekiti, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Lagos, Ogun, Kano, Kogi, Kwara, Adamawa, Imo and Enugu.

    Some of the abandoned projects include; construction of mini-water scheme phase two, contract for the construction of small earth dam, rehabilitation of two-township water supply schemes, improvement of Olode water supply scheme under the Lower Niger River Basin Development Authority.

    Others are construction of Weru bridge fencing of Okene water works among others which was supposed to be implemented by the Lower Niger River Basin Development Authority.

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    Projects abandoned under the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing include the rehabilitation of Ikorodu road with about N112.8million unaccounted for, also the rehabilitation of 24km Akungba-Ikare-Omuo-Kabba road among others.

    Elomo said: “We visited 12 states over the last six months and monitored 19 out of the 30 priority projects highlighted in this report. While one of the projects had been completed, two were not executed, 10 abandoned, three poorly implemented, another two currently ongoing and one now provided for in the 2018 Appropriation Act.

    “The major issue for us is how procurement laws and financial regulations are flagrantly disregarded at the risk of public funds and the negative effect on Nigerians, many of which are in rural areas in terms of access to clean portable water, access roads, quality health facilities.

    “A total of N2.97 billion is said to be unaccounted for by different contractors on these 30 projects and we are calling on the anti-corruption agencies to quickly investigate these cases in order to ensure deserved value for money is achieved.”

    Also, Project Director, TrustAfrica, Chinedu Nwagu, called on the National Assembly to carry out a review of the 2016 report.

    He said it is only when a review of the report is done and recommendations forwarded to the Executive arm of government that the anomalies found in the report could be corrected.

    Nwagu said: “There is need for the National Assembly to do the needful by ensuring extensive review of the 2016 audit report of the federation. It is only when this is done and recommendations forwarded to the Executive Arm that these anomalies can be corrected.

    “Parliament should equally make effort in sending the new Audit Service Commission Bill 2018 to the president for assent. The new law will go a long way in preventing such illegality from occurring again,” he said.

  • Road crashes: 9 die, 84 injured in Ogun

    No fewer than nine persons died while 84 others sustained various degrees of injuries in various road crashes across Ogun between Dec. 15, 2018 and Jan. 15.

    Seni Ogunyemi, the Corps Commander, Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE) in Ogun, disclosed this in a statement in Abeokuta on Friday.

    The statement which was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria was signed by the Corps Spokesperson, Babatunde Akinbiyi.

    Ogunyemi explained that 42 road traffic crashes involving 12 private cars, two private buses, nine commercial buses, four commercial cars, four motorcycles, six medium trucks, five articulated trucks and six other vehicles were recorded.

    He added that during the period, 361 persons were involved in various crashes out of which 84 sustained injuries and nine males died.

    The corps commander said 268 persons were rescued unhurt due to prompt response to emergency by TRACE.

    He noted that 47.18 per cent of the crashes were caused by excessive speeding, 16.5 per cent by dangerous driving and 8.30 per cent by bad tyres.

    According to him, 10.76 per cent of the crashes were caused by driving against traffic and 17.26 per cent by other factors.

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    “Comparing year 2018 to year 2017, road traffic deaths were reduced by 55 per cent, from 20 in 2017 to 9 in 2018.

    “The number of people injured also decreased by 2.33 per cent, from 86 in 2017 to 84 in 2018.

    “Our resolve to reduce deaths and injuries on all roads in Ogun State will be pursued vigorously and relentlessly in 2019 such that no traffic offender shall go unpunished,” he said.

    Ogunyemi appealed to the motoring public to obey all traffic rules and regulations.

  • Dualise Idiroko road to reduce accidents, FRSC urges FG

    Mr Olugbenga Farinloye, the Idiroko Unit Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps ( FRSC ) in Ogun, on Thursday advised the Federal Government to dualise the Idiroko Road to reduce accidents in the area.

    Farinloye gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Ota, Ogun.

    He said that the appeal became necessary due the nature of the road as an international route and because many lives and property had been lost on the route.

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    “There is the need for government to dualise the road because of the recklessness of motorists and the ghastly nature of accidents that happen on it,’’ the FRSC boss added.

    He, however, implored motorists on the road to show some decorum by avoiding reckless driving.

  • Help! Erosion has almost finished us

    Residents of a community in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State are going through hell. No thanks to erosion, which has almost consumed their land. They are pleading for the attention of the authorities to save them from extinction, writes Bode Monogbe

    The residents of Owokodoro community, Ijebu-Ode, have cried to the state government for assistance over the gully erosion ravaging the community. According to the residents, the erosion has damaged properties and many have lost their lives.

    The erosion, which the residents claimed went out of control in year 2010, is scaring and disturbing. From investigations, the erosion, if not professionally handled, could wipe off the entire community soon.

    In an interview with The Nation, the Community Leader, Alhaji Adesanwo Maseka, said: “This gully you are seeing here was just a low-level erosion 10 years ago; no one thought it could turn to a life-threatening monster; it was shallow and little but today, it has killed more than seven property owners while others died of hypertension when the erosion unexpectedly pulled down their buildings.

    “Some were sleeping in the midnight when their buildings collapsed and died; some fell into the gully while trying to salvage their buildings;. The boy’s quarters of my house and the attached are gone, and as you can see, the one-storey main building is being threatened day-by-day and this is the only house I have left. As you can see, I am old already, my health is not sound, if this house collapses, God forbid but I might collapse,” Maseka said emotionally with tears.

    On steps that have been taken or being taken by the community to call the attention of the relevant authorities over the issue. Pastor Kunle Fajoye, a resident and Proprietor of Varsity Children Academy whose administrative offices have been destroyed by the gully, said there is no relevant authority that the community has not visited or petitioned in the last 10 years, all to no avail.

    “We have visited the Awujale of Ijebu Land, Oba Sikiru Adetona to intimate with our ordeal but nothing happened; we have been protesting to the Governor’s office in Abeokuta since year 2008, no response; many political office holders have visited us in solidarity, nothing was heard from them after winning elections. Three different Ogun State Commissioners for Works and Environment have been here, with no action taken.

    We have been petitioning the Ecological Office in the Presidency in Abuja severally down to this place since eight years ago, when the gully was not as deep and threatening as this. Look at my school, half of the school is gone; we are losing our investments; we didn’t build on waterways, we got government approval for this building.

    “We take this reckless abandonment as a declaration of war against us by government elected to make lives meaningful to us. We are dying, 10 land lords and 18 others have lost their lives in one way or the other to this miserable gully.” He said.

    He appealed to the media to come to their aide, saying very that the people of Owokodoro have lost hope in government. In his words, the educationist said “You people in the media are our last hope, please have mercy on us, help inform the world about our suffering and ordeal. The people of Owokodoro are suffering. We are being killed in a miserable manner, our properties are being destroyed,” Fajoye said.

    As I was leaving Owokodoro for Lagos, I ran into the entourage of the candidate of Social Democratic Party for Ijebu Central Federal Constituency, Adekunle Osibogun, who was visiting the area for consultation.

    The renowned Ijebu born legal practitioner expressed sadness when he saw the gully. He spoke like a valiant soldier: “I met Ijebu at the same level it was when I was leaving, which is pathetic; and this is one of the reasons for my joining the race to run for the House of Representatives. To cut the long story short, what I am seeing here is wickedness of the highest order against the citizenry; let me say very explicitly that if elected I will ensure that the Federal government ecological department is dragged down here to come to the aid of my people,” he said.

  • Kashamu rejects Adebutu-led PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation

    The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State, Senator Buruji Kashamu, on Wednesday rejected the purported constitution of another PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation (PDP PCO) for the state being chaired a member of the House of Representatives, Honourable Oladipupo Adebutu.

    Kashamu described the composition of the new body as fake.

    In a statement issued in Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State, Kashamu, who is the Senator representing Ogun East Senatorial District at the Senate, said the authentic PDP PCO, which he heads as the Chairman, was inaugurated by the lawful Engr. Adebayo Dayo-led State Executive of the PDP on the 28th of November, 2018.

    He said his choice as the Chairman of the PDP PCO in Ogun State was informed by the fact that he is the party’s governorship candidate with a solid structure and functional offices across the state.

    The statement reads in part: “The purported inauguration of another PDP PCO by the dissident group within the Ogun State PDP is most unfortunate. One is surprised that this is coming at a time well-meaning stakeholders are preaching reconciliation, peace and unity.

    “As a lawmaker, he should not portray himself as a lawbreaker. The only PDP Chairman known to the law and major stakeholders within the Ogun State PDP is Engr. Adebayo Dayo.

    “Engr. Dayo, as the State Chairman of the PDP, presided over the State Congress where the governorship candidate of our party was elected in line with Section 25(1) of the Peoples Democratic Party Constitution 2017 (as amended) which states: ‘There shall be a State Party Congress which shall consist of: The State Chairman who shall be the Chairman.

    “Section 25(2C) states further: ‘The function of the State Congress shall be to: (c) Elect Governorship candidates of the Party’, among others.”

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    “Having emerged in line with the provisions of the Constitution of our great party, I am the governorship candidate known to the party, the law and INEC. It was in line with the decisions and guidelines released by the party that the governorship candidates should head the PDP PCO in their respective states that the party stakeholders chose me to lead the campaign in Ogun State.

    “So, any other person parading himself as the Chairman of the PDP PCO in Ogun State is an impostor and should be ignored.”

    Kashamu urged the security agencies and the national leadership of the party to call Adebutu to order before his importunate actions plunge the party and Ogun state into unnecessary chaos and crisis.

    He also urged the national leadership of the party to be neutral wherever there were issues between contending interests within a political party.

    “The national leadership should be a father-to-all wherever there is a dispute between contending groups or forces within the party and not take side with one against the other since we are all members of the same family.

    “But, even as members of the same family, we have our right to life and to live. The father cannot attempt to kill one child for the other and expect that the child will not fight for its life or assume that the law will not take its course if the child is killed by the father. That is why we say the supreme power of the party is not absolute,” Kashamu added.

  • Ogun talks tough on land grabbing

    Ogun State government has warned that it would use enabling laws and policies to decisively deal with any land grabber caught operating in any part of the state.

    The state government which made this known through the newly appointed Director-General of Bureau of Lands and Survey, Arc. Akinwunmi Jumoke, said the present administration was ever determined to make the state the best in the country in terms of the ease of doing business in respect of land matters.

    Akinwunmi said the agency remained committed to creating seamless business environment via efficient service delivery that promotes land acquisition without tears.

    According to Arc. Akinwunmi, the state government would not condone individual or groups that want to make land acquisition difficult and painful.

    Akinwunmi spoke in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital while receiving handing over notes from his predecessor, Hon Biyi Ismail, who just resigned his appointment to pursue House of Representatives seat for Ijebu North/Ijebu Northeast/Ogun Waterside Federal constituency in next month poll.

    She said: “It is the absolute responsibility of the agency to further attract what kind of business that will further aide our growth and development.

    “So, we will definitely look at the policies on ground, review them where necessary and just ensure that land acquisition and administration in the state is such that is result oriented.”

    She described the Home Charter Owners scheme as very successful, reiterating Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s assurance that any qualified residents of the state who applied for the scheme should not entertain fear as they would all receive their certificates of occupancy before this administration winds up.

    The DG urged the management and staff of the agency to be more dedicated at their various duty posts and cooperate with her in the determined bid to reposition the agency for greater efficiency.

    Hon. Biyi Ismail in his short remark commended Amosun for giving him the opportunity to serve the state as the Director-General of Bureau of Lands and Survey for over seven years, stressing it had afforded him the grace to contribute to the growth of the state.

    He also appealed to the staff of the agency to extend same courtesy accorded him to the new DG for a fruitful and rewarding tenure.

  • 396 pre-election cases may stymie Vote 2019

    ABOUT 42 days to the general election, there are still a lot of pre-election matters before the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court with glaring implications for  the umpire (INEC), the parties and candidates. Many candidates in  Adamawa,  Zamfara, Rivers, Ogun,  Kwara, Imo and others do not know their fate. According to records obtained from INEC, there are 396 court actions arising from the primaries conducted by political parties. The figure is higher than 200 matters in court before the 2015 poll. A source in INEC said: “All the things we have criticized about general elections manifested during the primaries.”

    The big question is: Will the court be able to resolve all pre-election matters on or before February 16? Will candidates still win elective offices through the backdoor this time around?  Nigerians look forward to the Judiciary to save the electoral process and restore sanity.

  • Man arraigned for alleged N1.5m visa fraud

    A 38-year-old man, Olajuwon Akanmu, was on Thursday arraigned before an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court for alleged visa fraud.

    Akanmu, a resident at Ota, Ogun State, was alleged to have collected N1.5 million from one Mrs Titilayo Abubakar under the pretext of helping her to procure Saudi visa and other travel documents.

    The defendant was arraigned on a two count charge bordering on fraud and obtaining money under false pretence before Magistrate (Mrs) Bola Osunsanmi.

    Prosecuting Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Ezekiel Ayorinde, said that the defendant committed the offence on June 25, 2018, at Akesan, Igando, Lagos.

    ASP Ayorinde alleged that Akanmu presented himself as Saudi Arabia Hajj agent and charged the Mrs Abubakar N1.5 million for the service.

    He said after collecting the money, Akanmu did not process the document.

    He said each time the complainant called him for developments on the matter, Akanmu would threaten to eliminate her if she continues to demand for her money.

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    ASP Ayorinde said all efforts by the victim to recover her money after the Hajj operations proved abortive.

    He said that after some time, the defendant stopped picking her calls as a result of which the complainant reported the case at the station and the alleged fraudster was arrested.

    When the charges were read, Akanmu pleaded not guilty.

    Magistrate Mrs Osunsanmi, granted the defendant bail in the sum of N200, 000 with two sureties in like sum.

    She said that the sureties should be gainfully employed and show evidence of two years’ tax payment to the Lagos State Government.

    She adjourned the matter till January 30.

  • FRSC targets to make highways more safer in 2019

    The Ogun Command of Federal Road Safety Corps ( FRSC ) on Thursday said its target for 2019 was to make highways in the state, the safest in the country.

    Mr Clement Oladele, the Ogun Sector Commander of FRSC told the News Agency of Nigeria in Ota.

    According to him, the command would work with drivers to ensure compliance to all road traffic rules and regulations, as doing so would drastically cut down crashes on the roads.

    “The FRSC also hope to see motorists maintaining their vehicles before putting them on road and show compassion to other road users to ensure sanity on the roads,” he said.

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    Oladele noted that the Federal Government was trying its best to ensure that highways across the country are safer for motorists, and urged drivers to also comply with traffic rules.

    The sector commander said the corps would also intensify efforts in ensuring that commercial drivers yet to fix the speed limit device do so, before its enforcement on private vehicles.

    “The importance of speed limit devices cannot be overemphasized because it checks the excesses of drivers and reduce crashes.”