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Tag: Osun State

  • Easter: Oyetola okays free train transport for Osun citizens

    Osun State citizens travelling home for Easter celebration will have the opportunity of free train transportation from Lagos to Osogbo, the state capital.

    Those travelling from towns on the route between Lagos state and Osun state will also benefit from the free trip as approved by Governor Adegboyega Oyetola.

    It will be at no cost to the travelers.

    A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Adeniyi Adesina, said the all- expenses paid round trip, whose objective is to give relief, will stop over at designated Train Stations in Ogun and Oyo states.

    Read Also: SDP pledges support for Oyetola

    According to the schedule of movement, the train will depart from the Iddo Terminus in Lagos by 10am on Friday, April 19, with the expected 6pm arrival time at the Nelson Mandela Freedom Park Train Station in Osogbo.

    In the reverse movement on Monday, April 22, the train will depart from the Nelson Mandela Freedom Park Train Station in Osogbo at 10am with the expected 6pm arrival time at Iddo Terminus in Lagos.

    It is the second time the Oyetola Administration will provide free train transport for citizens going home for religious celebration. The first time was in December 2018, for people travelling home for Christmas, barely one month after the governor took office.

    Millions of people have benefitted from the Free Train Movement since it was initiated by the State Government of Osun in 2011. It has continued non-stop.

  • 98 schools in Osun contest in quiz competition

    Ninety eight secondary schools in  Osun State recently took part in an educational quiz competition sponsored by a private organization, the Aenon Foundation.

    The participating public secondary schools were drawn from Osun West Senatorial District.

    Speaking at the grand finale of the quiz competition in Iwo, the chairman of the foundation, Engr. Ademola Adedapo, said the programme was a private contribution to the development and standard of education in the state.

    He assured that the Aenon Foundation would continue to invest in education to enable pupils realise their full potentials.

    In his remark at the event, the Oluwo of Iwoland, Oba Abdul-Rasheed Akanbi, Telu I, advised the pupils of  secondary and primary schools to be diligent and determined so as to be great in life.

    Read Also: Intervention for 10 Osun health facilities

    The monarch, who also charged parents to always make sacrifices for their wards, said they should procure reading and writing materials that will aid their learning.

    Representing the state governor, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola, at the event, the Permanent Secretary in the state’s ministry of education, Mr. Festus Olajide, commended the Aenon Foundation for the programme.

    He advised well-meaning Nigerians and corporate organizations to emulate the foundation by partnering the state government in meeting the needs of the people.

  • Power restoration soon in Ilesa following Oyetola’s intervention

    Power will soon be restored to Ijesaland following an intervention by Osun State Governor Adegboyega Oyetola in the face-off between youths of the area and the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC).

    The youths went on the rampage last month following a protracted power outage, which followed disagreement overbilling, among other issues.

    The youths destroyed some equipment belonging to IBEDC, which the power firm said would require a huge sum to fix.

    Yesterday, Oyetola held a peace meeting with the IBEDC officials, traditional rulers in Ijesaland, led by Owa Obokun of Ijesaland, Oba Adekunle Aromolaran and the Elegboro of Ijebu Jesa, Oba Moses Agunsoye.

    The leader of the House of Assembly, Mr. Timothy Owoeye and House of Representatives member-elect Lawrence Ayeni led the political leaders and other stakeholders.

    Government officials at the meeting included Deputy Governor Benedict Alabi; Secretary to the State Government Wole Oyebamiji; Chief of Staff to the Governor Dr. Charles Akinola and Head of Service Dr Oyebade Olowogboyega.

    IBEDC officials in attendance included Regional Head, Osun IBEDC, Mr. Akin Ogunleye; Regional Technical Manager, Osun IBEDC, Akin Abiodun and Executive Director, Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) Chief Sunday Oduntan.

    Read Also: SDP pledges support for Oyetola

    Oduntan said after the meeting that the outcome would lead to the restoration of power to Ijesaland.

    He said officials of IBEDC and other concerned authorities had agreed to convey the agreement reached at the meeting to the top management of the IBEDC.

    Oduntan added: “This meeting is fantastic because we were able to have two major individuals – the Executive Governor of the state and the paramount ruler of Ijesaland.

    “The two eminent personalities have spoken with us on the issue, and we have given them the facts and figures as regards what had happened.

    “We have agreed to do necessary things that can facilitate quick restoration of power to the affected areas.

    “We have requested the governor to allow us to go back to the management of the IBEDC and convey his strong message of empathy and appeal to the appropriate authority.”

     

  • Osun records hike in forestry revenue

    The Osun State government has recorded 120 per cent increase in revenue from the forestry sub-sector, raking in N22 million in March against the N10 million in January.

    The Chairman of the Committee on Forestry, Prof. Bayonle Olorede, stated this during the presentation of the panel’s report to Governor Adegboyega Oyetola on Tuesday in Osogbo, the state capital.

    Olorede said the committee blocked some areas of leakage, which led to the increased revenue for the government.

    He said the committee came up with 17 recommendations, which if implemented, would assist the state to actualise its set objectives in the forestry sub-sector.

    Part of the recommendations is the appointment of a forestry consultant, who will be given a target to effect the needed change that will reposition the sector. It also listed the qualities that such a person should possess

    Describing forestry as a critical revenue generation sector, Olorede hailed the Oyetola’s administration for working assiduously to improve the revenue base of the state.

    Read Also: Osun records hike in forestry revenue

    He said: “We are happy to inform the governor that the state revenue on forestry had increased with over 100 per cent.

    “The revenue rose from N10 million to N22.5 million between January 2019 and March 2019, showing tremendous improvement in the revenue base of the state compared to what was recorded in 2018.

    “Two out of the 17 recommendations in the report are very important to the quest to sanitise and improve on the revenue potential in the sector,” he added.

    Oyetola expressed delight with the outstanding performance of the committee

    He said the committee was inaugurated to sanitise the sector; block leakages and promote efficiency and accountability.

    Oyetola said his administration remained resolute to bring out the best in all sectors to drive up the revenue profile of the state.

  • Intervention for 10 Osun health facilities

    No fewer than 10 primary health centres in Osogbo, the Osun State capital recently benefited from medical equipment worth over N1 million donated by a foreign society group, the Sisters Cities International.

    The health centres include the ones at Okebale, Olugunna, Enikaoyun, Ota-Efun, Oke Abesu, Odiolowo and Ilie. Also, the international project of the Osogbo Ashville Sister Cities Association (OASCA), the Atelewo Model Primary Health Centre (PHC) with Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC) facilities, the state hospital at Asubiaro and the Obstetrics and Gynaecology (O&G) Department of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital (LAUTECH), Osogbo, benefited from the gesture.

    The donation was facilitated by the Osogbo Ashville Sister Cities Association (OASCA).

    Speaking during the distribution of the medical equipment to the health centres, the Chairman of OASCA, Dr. Oluseyi Atanda, revealed that they were carefully selected after a background investigation on their relevance and patronage by the public as well as their deficiencies in some areas.

    He further revealed that the intervention would strengthen health care delivery services in communities within Osogbo.

    According to him, the gesture was as a result of the collaboration between OASCA and Sister Cities International in order to improve the lives of residents, especially mothers, children and the youth in the communities.

    Atanda added that the medical equipment comprises labour and delivery instruments, paediatrics and anaesthesiology, apart from surgical gowns and drapes.

    He said: “It is my belief that the service providers in the facilities, project implementation committee and the local governments will ensure that the equipment are judiciously used to achieve the purpose for which they were provided.”

    He acknowledged that the event is historical; saying it will improve the health status of residents.

    Atanda, who noted that the event was first of its kind, maintained that it was the largest medical supplies from Asheville to Osogbo community.

    He further said: “Sister Cities International has facilitated assistance to over 550 communities in and outside United States of America. The organisation has over 2, 000 partnerships in 136 countries.

    “Asheville Sister Cities Incorporated is a member of SCI with seven cities relationships spread across the world and we are proud to be the 6th and only city in relationship with Asheville in Nigeria.”

    The Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Olanioekun Oyetuni, Larooye II, represented by one of his chiefs, Bashorun Tunde Akanni, praised SCI for its gesture, promising to monitor the utilisation of the equipment.

    Also, the National President, Osogbo Progressive Union, Ambassador Adul-Rasaq Siyanbola, advised the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the equipment.

  • Govt advised to sponsor indigent students in varsities

    The Maye of Yoruba land and founder of the Oduduwa University, Ipetumodu, Osun State High Chief Ramon Adedoyin has advised the Federal Government to show more commitment in the education of brilliant but indigent students. This, he said, it could do by ensuring the improvement of the education sector through investment in the sector which he described as catalyst for development.

    According to him, many brilliant students would continue to be denied university education as long as the current arrangement subsists.

    To ensure that more students from poor homes receive university education, the High Chief maintained that the Federal Government should sponsor more brilliant but indigent students in tertiary education.

    Adedoyin spoke while reacting to a recent statistics which revealed that “out of close to two million candidates who sat for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME), more than one million would be denied admission not because they are not qualified but because the present carrying capacity of Nigeria tertiary institutions, especially the public ones, are not enough to cater for the teeming population of youths seeking admission each year.”

    The statistics revealed that “about 1.99 million candidates registered for the UTME, but the current carrying capacity of Nigerian universities, monotechnics, polytechnics, colleges of education and innovation schools is 750,000 which leaves a shortfall of over 1.2 million candidates who will have to join other candidates to jostle for the limited admission spaces next year or look for ramshackle universities in Cotonou, Republic of Benin or illegal universities in Nigeria.”

    The National Universities Commission (NUC) recently listed almost 100 illegal varsities in Nigeria and Republic of Benin, where many Nigerian students are currently studying.

    The statistics also stated that while most public tertiary institutions, especially the public ones already admit above their carrying capacity, none of the private universities is able to admit up to its carrying capacity because of exorbitant fees which they charge.

    Proffering solution to the unsavoury situation, High Chief Adedoyin said the way out is for government to ensure that the poor have access to quality education by sponsoring those students whose parents could not afford fees for tertiary education. He further noted that the carrying capacities of private universities are not met because they charge an average of 400,000 naira which most parents cannot afford.

    According to him, the government doesn’t need to give cash to private institutions for such sponsorships; rather such sponsorships can be in form of building laboratories, libraries, hostels as well as other facilities which shall be equivalent of the tuition charged by the private universities.

    “Private schools pay heavily on salaries and provision of facilities,” he said.

    He also advised that rather than proliferating private universities by giving approval for more of such institutions, the Federal Government should create access to private universities through sponsorships and other incentives.

    Stating that the minimum qualification for one to teach in a standard university is a doctoral degree, the educationist said many of the existing universities lack the requisite manpower, adding that there is need for the existing universities to work optimally before approvals are given for new ones.

  • Oyetola promises to make mining benefit host communities

    The Osun State governor, Mr.  Gboyega Oyetola, has promised to make mining of mineral resources found in the state work for the development of the people and the host communities.

    He made the promise while declaring open a 5-day training programme tagged extension services to artisanal and small scale miners sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development in Osogbo, the state capital.

    Governor Oyetola said rejuvenation of the mining sector of the state economy is a major cardinal programme of his administration.

    Represented by the Executive Secretary, Office of the Forestry and Natural Resources, Mr. Simeon Lanlehin, the governor said his interest in mining sector is based on its pontentials for a great prosperity multiplier and huge labour employer.

    Read Also: Oyetola seeks establishment of Court of Appeal in Osun

    Stressing that the training programme will ginger the participants to be more active on the field, Oyetola said mining could create employment opportunities for teeming young population in the state.

    The governor, who said the objective of the workshop is to provide to technical competence for stakeholders in the mining sector of the state economy, lamented that illegal activities of some miners are undertaking in a manner that damages the environment and exposes the people in “our communities to serious health hazards.”

    Oyetola disclosed that gold is the most mined in the state by artisanal and small scale miners, whose activities are majorly unprofessional, unregulated, unsafe and unprofitable to government.

    He, therefore, pledged support for the federal government to make mining take the nation to the next level, saying Osun like many states are blessed with abundant mineral resources, including gold.

    In his welcome address, the leader of the team of the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel for the workshop, Engr. Olabisi Mojoyinola, said the Federal Government has recognized the importance of mining to national economy.

    Mojoyinola, who represented the ministry’s Director of Artisanal and Small Scale Mining, Mr. Patrick Ojeka, said the FG has adopted aadoptedgy termed formalization through “Cooperatization” to address the artisanal mining issues and using it as an instrument to alleviate poverty.

    No fewer than 150 participants drawn from Osun, Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti and Ondo states attended the workshop.

  • I donated eight years’ pay to Osun, says Aregbesola

    Former Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has revealed how he voluntarily forfeited his official salaries totalling N114, 743,197.4 million for the eight years he was governor.

    Aregbesola spoke during a lecture he delivered at the 65th Anniversary and Old Students’ Re-union of Manuwa Memorial Grammar School (MMGS), Iju-Odo, Ondo State, where he emphasised the importance of productivity in the life of a nation and at the level of individuals’ economy.

    The former governor, who warned on the dangers of living a life-style not commensurate with one’s income, noted that the way to bankruptcy and inability to meet essentials needs stepped from when an individual either lived above his or her income or consumed all incomes as they came.

    In his view, the lure to live above one’s income often come from lust to acquire what one may not need or what one could not afford.

    Aregbesola, who urged Nigerians, particularly youths, to always distinguish between needs and desires, made reference to himself when as governor, he said all his needs; including food, housing, cars and all others, were borne by the state, just as he had no school children he had to sponsor.

    The former governor said though acquiring new houses, cars and other related property might be desirable as a governor, but added that they were no longer of necessity to him and that what was noble and honourable for him to do was to donate his salaries for the eight years he was governor for the good and benefit of the government and people of the state.

    Unlike some of his former colleagues, Aregbesola said he built no house in Osogbo, Ilesa, Lagos or in any other place throughout his two terms tenure as Osun governor.

    He said sticking to only essential needs either at the level of individuals or a country would enhance investment and productivity.

    To promote the culture of investment and productivity and inculcate them in the minds of youths, the former governor recommended that Investment and Productivity be taught as a subject in Nigerian schools from the elementary to the tertiary level, just as he admonished workers generally to emphasise on productivity more than on salary as a right.

    He lamented that one of the banes of low productivity in the country was that workers always pay more attention to salary as a right without considering productivity as a right or as an obligation.

    The former Osun helmsman in company of some alumni of the college, among whom are Major General Olu Bajowa (retd), a former Quarter-Master General of the Nigerian Army, inaugurated some teaching-learning enhancing projects sponsored by the college’s alumni association.

    A re-constructed chalet, where Aregbesola lived as a student in 1971, was named after him and he pledged to regularly maintain it.

    The former governor bemoaned the state of education, but gave kudos to the alumni association for its contributions to the development of the college and urged them to double their efforts.

    He noted that in doing this, they would be contributing in no small measure to the emancipation of the children of the poor masses. He noted that with the support of the alumni to boost education, children of the poor would be able to identify their individual passions and develop the hunger to achieve them.

    General Bajowa extolled the leadership quality of Aregbesola, especially his passion for selfless service to mankind as demonstrated by the forfeiture of his salaries for eight years and more strikingly, his identification with the alumni and financial contributions to the college regardless of the fact that he only did forms One and Two in the school.

    MMGS, named after the late world renowned surgeon, Dr. Samuel Manuwa, is one of the oldest 100 secondary schools in Nigeria.

    It was established on February 22, 1954.

  • We didn’t see Adeleke in exam hall, witnesses tell court

    Two witnesses in the ongoing trial of Sen. Ademola Adeleke on a seven-count amended charge bordering on examination malpractice on Wednesday told the Federal High Court Abuja that they did not see the senator in the examination hall.

    The witnesses, Mr Emmanuel Adesola and Enoch Adigun, both teachers, while being led in evidence by the prosecutor Mr Simon Lough, told the court that they invigilated examinations at Ojo -Aro Community Grammar School in Osun State in 2017.

    Adesola told the court that when he got to school, he asked for the school album but was told it was not ready.

    According to him, “I could not identify any student without the school album since it was my first time there so the principal and the register helped me to identify them as I used the list I had to call the students into the hall.

    “I didn’t see any of the defendants in the examination hall; Sen. Adeleke was not in the examination hall, he is a public figure so I would have recognised him,” the witness told the court.

    Read Also: Court: Adeleke unfit to run for Osun governor

    The witness who further told the court that he had been supervising National Examination Council (NECO) examination for the past five years also told the court that there were four elderly students in the hall.

    While being cross examined by Mr Alex Iziyon, (SAN), the witness said that he did not make a formal report on the absence of a school album to his superiors even though he ought to have done so.

    He also told the court that on the day he invigilated, he did not witness any form of examination malpractice in the hall.

    On his part, Adigun told the court that he saw the second defendant, Sikiru Adeleke in the examination hall while he was invigilating.

    According to Adigun, I was surprised to see him because he was the most matured student in the hall but when I checked and saw that he had an identity card duly stamped by the school, I had to allow him write the examination.

    Adigun said that he didn’t see Adeleke in the examination hall or any of the other defendants besides Sikiru.

    The trial judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo adjourned the matter until June 10 and 11 for continuation of hearing.

    Adeleke was first arraigned by the Federal Government in Sept. 2018 on a four-count charge bordering on examination malpractice, along with his brother, Sikiru Adeleke and three others.

    The senator pleaded not guilty to the charges and was granted bail on self-recognizance by the court.

    The others were Alhaji Aregbesola Mufutau (Principal, Ojo-Aro Community Grammar School, Ojo-Aro Osun), Gbadamosi Ojo (School Registrar) and Dare Olutope (a teacher).

    The police accused them of fraudulently registering Adeleke and his brother Sikiru as students of Ojo-Aro Community Grammar School in Ojo-Aro, Osun State, for the National Examination Council’s June/July 2017 Senior School Certificate Examination in Feb. 2017.

    They were re-arraigned in Dec. 2018 on a seven-count amended charge bordering on examination malpractice.

    NAN

  • 2019 Osun festival will be different – Ataoja

    Five months ahead of the annual Osun Osogbo festival, plans to make this year’s edition a huge success and different from the previous ones have begun in earnest.

    The Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Olanipekun Oyetunji, during the visit to his palace by a team of a tourism, art and culture consultancy group, the Equity Global, led by its principal consultant, Mr. Williams Derrick, said the economic value of the festival to Nigeria is immeasurable.

    Oba Oyetunji said the festival annually contributes not only to the local economy but the national economy with influx of people from all parts of the world to participate in the socio-cultural and religious activities of the event.

    He explained that he was determined to preserve the heritage of the festival and the Osun Sacred Grove, which was listed among the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) world heritage site in 2005.

    The Ataoja said as a custodian of Osun deity, he has the responsibility to ensure her preservation and safe keeping.

    The first class monarch, who denied alleged sales of Osun deity, which he described as an “immovable spirit,” advised the people to disregard the accusation.

    He maintained that selling Osun deity amounts to selling his throne as the Ataoja of Osogbo, saying he derived part of his power from the existence of the Osun goddess.