An Akure High Court presided over by Justice A. Adegoroye has ordered the Oloja of Oka in Ondo community, Noah Ijelu, to vacate his throne immediately.
Justice Adegoroye gave the order in his judgment in a case filed by members of Adesinmirinwa and Olupona ruling houses against the installation of Ijelu.
In the suit, the governor, his deputy, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, the Osemawe of Ondo Kingdom, Oba Victor Kiladejo, as well as High Chief Lisa J. A. Akinkunmi, representing the kingmakers of Oka community, and Mr. Noah Olafusi Ijelu, are defendants.
The two ruling houses, which instituted the matter, prayed the court to hold that there are only two ruling houses in Oka community: Akinsinmirinwa and Olupona.
They said the Olupona ruling house should be the next to ascend the throne of Oloja since the last occupier of the throne, the late Oloja Dada Adedimeji Akinsoyinu, was from Adesinmirinwa ruling house.
Ondo State yesterday confirmed receipt of N 7,003,648,314.28 as its share of second tranche of the Paris Club refund.
Separately, Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha acknowledged the receipt of N7 billion as the state’s share of the refund.
However, Ondo noted that of the sum, 32.68 per cent will be allocated to the local government areas. The state government will receive 67.32 per cent as its own share.
The government, in a statement by the Chief Press Secretary(CPS) to the governor, Segun Ajiboye, said in accordance with the agreement reached between the states and Ministry of Finance, 75 per cent of the share received by the state will be devoted to payment of salaries and pensions.
The remaining 25 per cent will be devoted to capital projects.
The statement said as a responsive government, the state government is committed to use the funds for the purposes they are meant to be used for.
Okorocha, however, said “the money will be used to clear 2017 outstanding pensions since the government had earlier cleared all the past pension arrears up to December 2016”.
The government had promised to commence the payment of pensioners at the end of every month with effect from last January.
The Fadama lll Additional Financing Project has trained no fewer than 300 unemployed graduates in Ondo State to acquire vocational skills in agricultural enterprises.
Mr Olusiji Olatunji, the state Project Coordinator, disclosed this at the opening ceremony of the programme at the Federal University of Technology (FUTA) in Akure on Monday.
He said the exercise would run for two weeks in three centres across the state.
Olatunji said that the higher institutions selected for the programme were FUTA, Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, and Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko.
The coordinator said that the training programme was initiated by the Federal Government through the Fadama Graduate Unemployed Youth Support (Fadama GUYS) programme.
“The training aims to empower unemployed young graduates in Nigeria by making them self-reliant and employers of labour.
“Leaving these youths unattended to will give them opportunity to dissipate their energy in all forms of menace and social vices like drug trafficking, robbery, internet fraud and cultism, “he said.
He said that government’s efforts to stem the spate of unemployment among the youths would go a long way in ameliorating the tense situation in the labour market.
“Each beneficiary will be trained; taught to write a business plan on choice enterprise and given a starter pack of about N1 million as grant,” he said.
Mr Akin Olotu, Senior Special Adviser on Agriculture in Ondo State said the state government was committed to the transformation of the agriculture sector.
Olotu said Governor Rotimi Akeredolu was committed to making agriculture more attractive to the teeming youths in the state.
“We are reviving the agriculture sector in the state through the engagement and participation of youths to take over from aged persons by making it attractive.
“We are not thinking of production alone but rather thinking of the entire value chain, processor, marketing and agro entrepreneurship,” he said.
According to him, if agriculture is made attractive, it will create jobs and produce raw materials for the agro-industry.
Two beneficiaries, Mr Kolawole Samuel and Miss Busayo Adeyeye, said the training would help them to plan for their future and be self-employed
Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has said the All Progressives Congress (APC) is intact in the state.
Akeredolu, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary Segun Ajiboye, said: “The governor remains unshaken in his commitment to deliver on his promise to continue to drive the wheel of progress of the state irrespective of their irresponsible and devious acts to cause discord and disaffection among the peace-loving people of Ondo State.
“It is, however necessary to state here that till date, all the appointments made by Governor Akeredolu have been of people who are card-carrying members of the APC, except for the few professional personal aides.
“It should also be noted that Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu is committed to pursuing the five cardinal programmes of his administration, which are designed to bring development to Ondo State and to deliver the dividends of democracy to the good people of the state, irrespective of political or religious divide.”
Tragedy struck in the hilly town of Oka-Akoko,headquarters of Akoko Southwest of Ondo state on Saturday when four petroleum tankers burst into flames due to difficulties in ascending the elevated terrain of ‘Oke-Oka’.
As at the press time,the inferno still subsided,while motorists have abandoned the route linking Owo-Iwaro-Isua-Akoko-Lokoja- Abuja.
The Mokwa-Jebba bridge collapsed few weeks ago causing untold hardship to motorists and passengers.
According to the Olubaka of Oka-Akoko, Oba Adebori Adeleye, the present situation had ruined the economy of his people and had adverse effect on their lives.
However,the monarch appreciated Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu for his concern following the prompt delegation he sent to assess the road.
Already, officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission(FRSC) and soldiers have flooded the road to control few vehicles and motorcycles plying the dangerous spot.
The volume of articulated vehicles passing through Ikare-Ajowa to the Northern part have increased tremendously and now spoiling the road.
Residents of the four local government areas in Akokoland accused their representatives at both State and National Assemblies of not doing enough to tackle the road in the area in spite of many lives that had been lost because of the development.
The Ondo State Police Command yesterday paraded a five-man gang of suspected rapists who allegedly forced themselves on a student of Adeyemi College of Education at Ondo, the state capital.
The suspects – Akinola Timilehin, Olagbaju Tobi, Adetuyi Olakunle, Adeyemi Adebisi and Eric Nwage, who is on the run – allegedly took their turns as they raped the History/English student.
Parading the suspects, Police Commissioner Mrs Hilda Ibifuro-Harrison said one of the suspects recorded the scene in his mobile phone.
The police chief said the suspects were arrested with the assistance of the school authority.
She said: “At the Adeyemi College of Education at Ondo, these young men lured their victim into their room and gang-raped her.
“…During the act, one of the suspects, Adetuyi Olakunle, videoed their heinous crime as they took their victim one after the other. They later let her go with threat that they would use charms on her if she revealed the incident to anyone.”
Advising parents and guidance to teach their wards moral values, the police chief urged them to also look into the activities of their wards on campus.
Adetuyi Olakunle, a student of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic at Owo, said he recorded the scene to scare the victim from disclosing it to his colleagues.
Officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Ondo state have seized 24,596 kilogrammes of Indian hemp, otherwise known as cannabis sativa in the state.
The state commander of the agency, Mohammad Sokoto made the disclosure while briefing reporters on the achievements of the command in the last six months.
Sokoto said the agency confiscated a total 24,596 kilogrammes of Indian hemp and destroyed more than 37 hectares of drug farms.
Also,he revealed that 101 suspects were also arrested, out of which 16 have been convicted to various jail terms.
The command,Sokoto said also seized five vehicles and two landed property used to traffic and conceal drugs in Akure.
He linked the upsurge in criminal activities in the state to high rate of drug abuse.
This trend,he said the agency was tackling with sensitization programmes in 521 primary and secondary schools across the state.
Ondo State Government is to host the second meeting of the National Council on Niger Delta (NCND) between August 7 and 12.
The first meeting was hosted by Akwa Ibom State Government in Uyo, the state capital, in 2013.
Inaugurating the Local Organising Committee (LOC) to organise successful meeting coming up in Akure, the state capital, at the weekend, Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu described Ondo as the most peaceful among the nine Niger Delta states.
He expressed optimism that the sunshine state will be the best host of the meeting among its counterparts.
Akeredolu
Members of the committee include the Chairman, Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC), Gbenga Edema, who will serve as its chairman, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Governor on Oil and Gas, Dr. Benson Enikuomehin, Kele Bolodeoku, Boye Oyewunmi, Mrs. Oyelade Olanrewaju, Oluranti Netufo, Goke Ijatuase, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the Governor on Infrastructure, Engineer Aminu and OSOPADEC Secretary, Dr. Victor Koledoye, who will also serve as LOC Secretary, among others.
Akeredolu said the National Council is a high level consultative body for the Niger Delta region and comprises representation from all states of the Federation, federal government, Ministries, Department and Agencies.
The governor, who was represented by his deputy, Agboola Ajayi, said the government decided to inaugurate the LOC which is saddled with responsibility of delivering successful hosting.
The theme of the summit titled” Fast Tracking the Development and Peace of the Niger Delta Region” is apt in the national history and development, considering many cries of marginalisation and anti-social behaviours, including rampant kidnapping in the country.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Committee, Gbenga Edema, assured of the readiness of the committee to give its best for the success of the forthcoming council meeting and do what will benefit the region in the future.
The event had in attendance, the Secretary to the State Government, (SSG), Ifedayo Abegunde, and Chief of Staff (CoS) to the Governor, Chief Gbenga Ale.
As politicians and supporters of prospective commissioner-nominees are eagerly awaiting the list to be submitted to the State Assembly by Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, agitations and scheming overwhelmed observers in the state over the weekend.
Initially, it was learnt that the governor would settle for a compact cabinet but political stakeholders were said to have convinced him on the need to reflect representation of the entire 18 local governments in his cabinet as commissioners.
Sources hinted that any moment from now the list would be forwarded to the Assembly for screening and approval to facilitate their inauguration.
The Ondo State Police Command yesterday arraigned the Olugele of Ugele community in the Akure North Local Government Area, Oba Clement Aladesaye, at an Akure Magistrates’ Court for allegedly ordering the destruction of some property belonging to the Federal College of Agriculture in Akure, the state capital.
The property was said to be in millions of naira.
The monarch was arraigned on a six-count charge.
It was learnt that Oba Aladesaye entered the land to execute a 2012 judgment of the State High Court, which declared him the real owner of the land.
The college challenged the judgment at the Court of Appeal but the appellate court has not delivered judgement on the matter.
The charge sheet reads: “You, Clement Ajayi Aladegbaye Falodun and others now at large, between April 3 and June 20, 2017 at 8 a.m at Benin Garage Area of the Federal College of Agriculture in Akure in the Akure Magisterial District, did forcibly enter the land in actual and peaceable possession of Federal College of Agriculture in a wrongful bid to enforcing declaratory judgment in the suit…”
The accused did not plead guilty or not to the charges.
His lawyer, Dapo Agbede, averred that the court had no power to hear the case because, according to him, there was a subsisting judgment on the matter at the upper court.
He said: “The case has been determined by the higher court and there is a perpetual injunction restraining the complainant from going into the land. The higher court has adjudged the man (Aladesaye) as the real owner of the land.”
