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Tag: OSUN

  • Woman, lover, four kids burnt by fire in Osun

    A woman, her four children and lover were burnt in a midnight fire during the week in Ajumosa, Ogberin area of Ede North Local Government, Osun State.

    The woman, Mrs. Hadijat Adegoke (35), her children – Fawasi (13), Ishuwat (12),ý Sodiq (eight), Fatai (six) – and man friend Mr. Lawal Munirudeen (45) were said to be asleep when their yet-to-be completed house suddenly caught fire last Monday.

    A source in the neighbourhood said after the incident, the woman and her man were rushed to the Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo.

    The children, who were also seriously injured, are receiving treatment at a Muslim hospital at Oke-Gada in Ede.

    The source said the woman, popularly called Iya Ishuwat, just moved to the area during the last Ramadan.

    The source said the residents in the area, in the midnight, heard the victims shouting for help that their house was on fire before some  people summoned courage to rescue them and later took them to hospitals.

    One of the children said she saw an unidentified person with a four-litre keg suspected to be filled with petrol when she woke up to urinate a few minutes to the incident.

  • Ooni: Senators mourn with Osun, others

    Ooni: Senators mourn with Osun, others

    The Senate has sent a delegation to Osun State to commiserate with the state government, the people of Ile-Ife and the family of the late Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, the Olubuse II.

    It followed a motion moved on the floor of the Senate by the lawmaker representing Osun East, Senator Jide Omoworare.

    The delegation came to the state to express the sympathy of the Upper Chamber over the transition of the monarch.

    The delegation, which was led by the former Nasarawa State Governor, Senator Abdulahi Adamu, was yesterday received by the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, on behalf of Governor Rauf Aregbesola, at the Government House.

    The delegation, which included former Governor of Akwa Ibom and Senate Minority Leader, Senator Goodwill Akpabio, Senator Jide Omoworare, also paid condolence visits to Speaker, state House of Assembly, Najeem Salaam, the late monarch’s family in Ife, the traditional chiefs and kingmakers of Ife.

     

  • Osun monarch for installation

    Prince Jimoh Isiaka Adesina will be installed today as the Alase of Ilase-Ijesa in Obokun Local Government Area of Osun State.

    Adesina, a civil engineer from Ajarabiolu royal family, will be installed following Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s approval of his nomination by the kingmakers.

    The stool of Alase of Ilase-Ijesa became vacant following the assassination of the town’s monarch about two years ago.

    He was burnt to death in his palace by unidentified men.

  • Osun ’ll soon be out of cash crisis, says Rep

    A member of the House of Representatives Alhaja Ayo Omidiran, has predicted that Osun State will soon be out of its economic crisis.

    She said with the beginning of implementation of the communiqué of the stakeholders’ conference held on August 10, in Osogbo, the state is set for an economic turnaround.

    The conference was organised by the Osun Legislators’ Forum and attended by public office holders and civil servants.

    Top players in the organised labour and private sector also attended, the event, where decisions on the way forward were taken.

    Mrs. Omidiran, who represents Irewole Federal Constituency, was one of the prime organisers of the conference.

    She said Governor Rauf Aregbesola has started to implement the meeting’s outcome.

    “The idea behind it was for us to bring the ideas together so that the state can harness its resources to continue to move forward. We were happy the governor supported it and put all the government machinery behind it. We are confident the outcome will positively influence the state,” Mrs. Omidiran said.

    Osun is one of the states badly hit by the financial crisis that followed the drop in oil prices, which adversely affected the cash flow into the nation’s treasury.

    The state is just clearing the backlog of salaries to its workers.

    The communiqué of the conference read by the representative of the labour unions at the meeting, Mr. Richard Afolayan Oyegbami, recommends that:

    * government should plug the loopholes in the way revenues are collected;

    * Osun people must pay taxes and rates before being compelled to do so;

    *the need to review the cost of governance, particularly to ascertain accurately the recurrent expenditure.

    *government should embrace public private sector partnerships in agriculture, mining and tourism;

    *government should patronise competent local contractors to deepen the state’s economy; and

    *parents should contribute a token to augment the free education programme.

  • Osun: Options before the ruling party

    Going by the objective of this piece, one of the articles I wrote some six years back could be described as the first of a two-part piece. The article, titled ’Options before the opposition’, came at a time the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was not only in control of affairs in Nigeria, it also held five of six states in the Southwest by the jugular. Osun, the then ’State of the Living Spring’ was one of them.

    While the grip lasted, Osun State was not only regarded as PDP’s world, the party’s word was also law. At the helm of affairs were impertinently capitalistic and haughty hawks in whose eyes progress was measured only by what went into their pockets. Emergency democrats of Hitlerian antecedents hijacked power and the best they could offer was the mortgage of the state’s fortune for thirty shekels of silver. A strange amalgam of contradictory traits, PDP became law onto itself, eloquently ridiculing humanity with blatant contradictions and comical sincerity. The ’do-or-die’ party ruled the state with titillating indignation and it was as if tomorrow was a thousand years away.

    Nothing, as the saying goes, lasts forever! Like a broken-winged bird that could no longer fly, PDP lost power in Osun State and its fortune immediately took a nosedive. Trends turned and fates twisted: the ‘Power’ party not only lost in terms of men and materials, its loss also became the gain of the new party in the saddle. But, unlike the wasteful son who, when he came to himself, penitently went back to his father, PDP’s attempt at seeking righteous repentance after a downward spiral and crash has in the course of years past taken some dangerous twists, the latest being an incautious haven in the ’financial crisis bedeviling the whole of the federation which Osun State is part of.’ Regrettably, rather than treat the current salary challenge as a national crisis which demands collective prayers and efforts to resolve, PDP has seen it as an opportunity to blackmail Governor Rauf Aregbesola as well as discredit whatever dividends of democracy his administration has delivered to the people. For instance, interrogating the debt status ofý other states in Osun’s situation in relation to monthly deductions from their Federation Account allocations would have led us into why they are also in salary default to their workers. Peradventure, its outcome would have allowed for an appropriate classification of their governors either as prudent or reckless managers of resources – as Aregbesola is being unfairly labeled.

    “Politics”, according to Henry ‘Groucho’ Marx, ”is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” Recent events in Osun State tend to have confirmed the worrisomely volatile nature of politics which Mao Zedong once described as war without guns. As a matter of fact, that PDP as the main opposition party now blames others for its misfortune is not any surprise. After all, Nigeria’s ’Five Majors’ blamed the ten percenters for that unforgettable insult on our national psyche while Yakubu Gowon and his band blandly blamed Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi for what eventually befell his (Aguiyi-Ironsi’s) gang. Olusegun Obasanjo blamed ’Unknown Soldiers’ for the murder of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti and, when he again failed as president, he simply asked us to take our case to God. When Olusegun Agagu lost at the Tribunal, he attributed his loss to the work of some invisible hands in government, even when he was an integral part of that government. PDP blamed Card Readers for its woes at the 2015 general elections while Goodluck Jonathan, its presidential candidate, blamed unfriendly friends for his inability to keep a promise. Remember Godsday Orubebe? He blamed his embarrassing outbursts on frustration!

    But, the opposition’s inherently defective and incurably incomprehensible distractions notwithstanding, it is a transparent fact that Aregbesola’s name remains untainted; his record, impeccable; and his popularity, unswerving. Unlike others who have drunkenly adapted to the exigencies and the contingencies of living in denial, the governor is a man of demonstrable accomplishment who sees the salary challenge as an unfortunate pass which would soon ”smoke off in the state”. Little wonder he has set timelines for the completion of most of the outstanding projects initiated by his administration. For example, the Akoda-Gbongan-Ede Road is expected to be completed before the end of next year while the airport project at Ido Osun will become a dream-come-true before his second term expires. He has given his word that Osogbo will attain its promised world class capital city status while the School Feeding Scheme will not be sacrificed on the altar of wicked politics.

    In any case, these are trying times for the ruling party in Osun State. Understandably so! We also know that the race to 2018 actually began the day 2014 governorship election was won and lost. And with an opposition party as desperate for power as PDP, docility in whatever shape or form on the part of the ruling party is not always a viable option. In other words, while we concede that the opposition reserves the right to remain ignorant and blindly agreeable, its penchant for mischief should neither be underestimated nor its capacity for treachery overlooked. Also, while APC, as it is presently constituted, may be a collection of sincere and strange minds; and that it may take some time before the wheat is separated from the chaff, events on our hands present a lucrative opportunity for holistic evaluation of possible roles played, in particular, by fifth columnists and ‘enemies within’ as this will go a long way in repositioning the party.

    ‘For APC to remain the party to beat in Osun State, especially within the context of the Nigerian socio-political landscape, it must continue to be guided by the fundamentals of democratic tradition’

    This brings me to the all-important issue of internal democracy. For APC to remain the party to beat in Osun State, especially within the context of the Nigerian socio-political landscape, it must continue to be guided by the fundamentals of democratic tradition. For a fact, we should not delude ourselves into thinking that crushing the drama and the trauma of the Justice Oloyede-compliant ambush automatically translates into the suppression of the opposition’s penchant for devilish logic. No, not at all! Since they aren’t unsophisticated in their agenda, PDP and its agents have only temporarily switched into a ‘retreat and re-strategize’ mode! This is the more reason why some suggestions as canvassed by Jacob Adekomi and Obisesan Daramola at a summit recently organized by Osun Legislators’ Forum on how to move the state forward may not all be wished away. Gleaning one or two lessons from aftereffects of Bisi Akande’s downsizing of the state’s workforce in the early 2000s may also be helpful at a time like this. The culture of internal democracy and involvement of younger blood in the scheme of things are equally essential ingredients of democracy which the ruling party must continue to embrace.

     

    • Komolafe wrote in from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State.

  • Osun APC hails Nigerians, others for mourning Sijuwade

    •Party pays tribute to late monarch 

    Osun State All Progressives Congress (APC) has hailed Nigerians and others for sympathing with the Yoruba nation over the passing of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade, Olubuse II, whose body was buried last Friday.

    In a statement yesterday, its state chairman, Prince Adegboyega Famodun, said that “even if all of us had wished for it, there was no way we would have stopped his passing, for his time to leave had come. And he has gone”.

    Famodun, however, expressed relief in the memory of Oba Sijuwade’s dignified presence in Yorubaland and the world.

    The late Ooni, the APC chief said, was a glorious symbol of the Yoruba culture ever seen in nearly two centuries.

    The statement reads: “He (Ooni) was ‘Atobalete’ personified. Borne a king, he also lived it like nobody else had done before him in 200 years. Okunade Sijuade, Olubuse II was an exceptional and authentic representation of royalty that Yoruba nation has ever experienced in two centuries.

    “Occasionally, his personality stirred controversy; he had been through some rough and tumbles. But what made the late Ooni so special is that he commanded your respect, even when you were reluctant to give it. The authority of Oodua radiated through him.”

    Famodun added that the APC “is proud to be associated with this great monarch, who will live on in our memories as one of the greatest and compelling personalities in Yorubaland, Nigeria, Africa and the cultural world that nobody could afford to ignore”.

    “Like him or hate him, the late Ooni is one royalty, whose charismatic and cultural opulence will live on in the history of world royalties. He has set a standard that will be difficult to outshine in Yorubaland. That is what makes him so unique.

    “We accept his passing as natural; just as we realise that mourning the event is also natural. However, the Ooni lives on with his ancestors while we carry on and live the traditions of our forefathers to make our people prosperous and our country great.

    “Osun State, the APC and the Yoruba nation thank the world for empathising with us on the death of the Ooni of Ife.

    “His great soul will luxuriate in peace and comfort in the world beyond as it pleases the Creator spirit to offer him,” the APC said.

  • The obstreperous judge of the state of Osun

    The obstreperous judge of the state of Osun

    There is no way a judge would spew such banalities on a state chief executive if, indeed, she was not consumed by hate and it is rather a shame that we still have such bigoted individuals, with the power of life and death, adjudicating in our hallowed courts of justice

    No matter in which university her worshipful majesty, Justice Folahanmi Oloyede, read her law, she could never have passed through the likes of Professors Okunuga, Ijalaiye, Kasunmu or Olawoyin, the way she completely desecrated the judiciary by her ill- advised petition against the Osun State governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, which petition, it is obvious, she must have written out of some deep-seated bitterness. There is no way a judge would spew such banalities on a state chief executive if, indeed, she was not consumed by hate and it is rather a shame that we still have such bigoted individuals, with the power of life and death, adjudicating in our hallowed courts of justice. Reading this woman’s petition, you would not think that any other state, besides Osun, has a backlog of unpaid salaries.

    Meanwhile in Benue State, for reasons not unconnected with non-payment of workers’ salaries, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja temporarily froze the state’s accounts in Skye Bank, Zenith Bank, First Bank of Nigeria and First City Monument Bank while for the same reason. The Daily Independent of May 16, 2015 reported that workers in Plateau State sacked the entire state 24 lawmakers from sitting over their failure to prevail on the state government to pay their salary arrears running to about seven months. While this is the situation in at least 23 of Nigeria’s 36 states we have the words of the Edo State governor, Comrade Adam Oshiomhole, to the effect that President Jonathan “could only be said to have paid wages only to the extent that Okonjo-Iweala borrowed from the Central Bank; from various bond instruments including drawing down over N3 trillion from pension funds. It was in realisation of this truly pervasive problem that governors of both the APC and the PDP approached the federal government for a bail out which was granted. Unfortunately, given Yoruba’s historic bad belle and pull-him-down syndrome, things were bound to be treated differently in the Southwest, especially in Osun State, where a particular individual, forever wanting to be governor, was sure to find ‘agent provocateurs’, ready to pull his chestnuts out of the fire for him. This, I suspect, is where this judge, who has subsequently been thoroughly excoriated for desecrating the judiciary by legal juggernauts like Chief (Mrs) Folake Solanke, SAN and Professor Itse Sagay, SAN, comes in.

    It  is  also with  this  macabre circumstances in mind, this complete disregard for judicial norms  as well as  everything that can be  considered  decent, and respectful, that Adewale Adeoye, a CNN African Journalist Award winner,  decided  to weigh in on Oloyede’s monumental faux pas. His views are presented, mutatis mutandis:  “Governors should, by all means, be held accountable for their deeds.  All the same, Justice Oloyede erred.  Her petition is curious, suspicious and raises serious issues about the separation of powers just as it is a complete negation of the prescriptions of the code of conduct as it concerns judicial officers.  As one, it is obviously not in Justice Oloyede’s place to initiate impeachment proceedings against the governor. Her petition is novel, has never been known to happen; not here nor in the advanced democracies. This Judge has no history of being a radical and so must have acted at the prompting of politicians, or of a political party.  That she did so publicly is as dreadful as it is bizarre.  No judge, not even in a banana republic, should be seen acting in such a rash and repugnant manner. Why, for instance, has the Chief Justice of the Federation not written such a petition to the Senate calling for the impeachment of former President Goodluck Jonathan when the federal government was borrowing in trillions to pay salaries?  Without doubt, her action demonstrates a gross lack of professional etiquette and so she can justifiably be described as a threat to the judiciary. We have heard that a section of the judiciary stinks with corruption and by this, she has confirmed that such corruption is not limited to financials only; it could very well be attitudinal.  Her inability to check and moderate her sentiments smells to high heavens, exposing her as being extremely weak and unable to rein in her impulses. She demonstrated a flirtatious display of reactionary alliance with the roguish PDP; a party which has spared no effort in making governance in the State of Osun impossible.  Without a doubt, that  party is from whence came the contents  of her petition and it is meant to distract  a governor who is doing his best to ameliorate the effects of their party’s  unrestrained looting which ensured that trillions of naira that should have ended up in the federation account  never got there in the first place.  Nigerians must thank God PDP et al, have been dispatched to political Siberia to rot.

    Judges are neither police nor expected to be politicians. Judges are there to interpret the law based on evidence before them. They are not prosecutors, nor can they be judges in their own case. This misdirected judge quoted figures that are confidential to the state even when she did not get them, leveraging on the FOI law, which obviously means  that she has either been personally spying or has agents  leaking state secrets to her.  Clearly, Justice Oloyede is a remnant of the old order, a rookie of the political clan, planted in the judiciary; a clan that wishes to see Nigeria remain a fiefdom of ineptitude, run by a rogue cartel wishing to dominate government for selfish ends. It is the responsibility of any society that wishes to uphold the separation of powers, that intruders like her must not go unpunished by the appropriate authorities.”  Were Justice Oloyede a woman of principles, or a citizen who truly means well for her state; if she were a woman of her word, she should have promptly resigned her appointment except she still cannot see the difference between her high office as judge,  and that of  a mere busy body who has obviously been playing  ‘Edward Snowden’, on the state’s  official secrets . The State of Osun, I think, should proceed to make her have her day in court for this profanity. In concluding, let me say a word for the poor, suffering Nigerian worker.  Nothing can be worse than not getting paid for work done and it becomes more excruciating when this situation continues for months on end.  And, given Nigeria’s parlous circumstances, this situation could go on for years. Or how many times can state governors run to a federal government that is, itself living by its shoestrings? This is why I think the Nigerian Labour Congress should now quit adversarial relationship with the different arms of government. Labour should set out to properly serve the interest of Nigerians workers by posing and finding answers to questions that are crucial if they hope to take workers out of their present cul-de-sac.  For instance, labour’s insistence on uniform salary in all states of the federation is unhelpful because states are not equally endowed.  Also, if the federal government will not perpetually come to states’ assistance in the payment of salaries, then it must quit negotiating salaries and allowances on behalf of other tiers of government. It is absolutely fallacious to think that states like Ebonyi, Ekiti, Osun etc, can comfortably pay the same salary as Lagos, Rivers, Kano, Akwa Ibom, for instance. States must be allowed to pay salaries it can afford based on honest negotiations between Labour and government. For instance, Osun did not have its current problem until the senior workers union arm twisted the government to extend the minimum wage agreement to all categories of staff. From that point on,

    most states discovered they could no longer afford their monthly salary bills. It must be pointed out that in any state of the federation, the public service does not cater to more than about 10 percent or thereabouts of the population. When this small fraction takes everything a government earns in a month, what is left for government to do anything else?  Only this past week the House of Representatives decided to investigate why the capital component of the current budget is not being implemented.  Should any serious body go into such things when even a kindergarten knows why?

    Labour must do this hard work on behalf of workers or give states a free hand to determine their staff strength.

  • ‘Osun ’ll survive’

    ‘Osun ’ll survive’

    House of Representatives member Hon. Adeyinka Ajayi spoke with reporters in Lagos on the challenges facing the Osun State Government and the way out of the crisis. Musa Odoshimokhe was there. 

    What is your take on the allegation of mismanagement of public funds against the Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola?

    The state we found ourselves in Osun is quite unfortunate. It is unfortunate because it is the best of intension, the best planning and forward looking mechanism the governor has put in place to serve the people. But, was misrepresented.  We found ourselves not being in control of those parameters that determines whether we are a growing concern or not. That is not peculiar to Osun anyway, it happens across the federation. I dare say that despite the fact that the whole nation is going through some challenges till now, Osun is pronounced because certain political gladiators that wanted to use unconstitutional and illegitimate means to get what Osun State did not want to give them. That is why Osun has been highlighted, that is where we have found ourselves once again.

    The government was accused of buying an aircraft. Yet, workers are being owed salaries…

    I will take that issue in isolation and I am sure in the course of this interview, I will address it in holistic manner. How much does a helicopter cost? It will not pay one month salary in Osun. Is that mismanagement? The issue of helicopter was bought for security reason. It was not bought for the movement of the government officials, which is a fact. The Federal Government of the previous administration stifled that initiative. The government of Osun applied for the equipment because we need a code from the National Communication Commission (NCC) to effectively perform the kind of serve the helicopter is needed for. Good initiative, but unfortunately politics reared its head. The equipment came, but getting the code, the channel from the NCC to be able to operate the equipment became impossible. The so-called order from above tried to stall it, therefore, Osun State government had two alternatives, either to resell the aircraft or make it available for other purposes that could bridge the gap, while we are sorted out the issue with the NCC. The equipment was actually being run commercially pending when the NCC will give us our code to be able to operate the equipment. How is that mismanagement? That equipment could actually be useful across the regions.

    What would you say about the debt profile of the state?

    In terms of debt profile, Osun is legitimately within the acceptable debt limit. My concern is the federal government, as it is run today, does not empower states, to go their own capacity to generate revenue. Those areas where you can expand the scope of economy are controlled by legislations of the Federal Government. Therefore, it is difficult to separate the sub-state’s economy from the federal economy. So, a huge your percentages of revenue from the state will always go back to the Federal Government. Lagos State economy is probably the only economy today that is striving to set out itself from the federal economy. And we can begin to have Lagos as an independent economy. Lagos has begun to build the sub-economy, but other states unfortunately cannot because they do not have that latitude in term of resources. The debt profile of Osun is not on the negative side, safe for the debt profile that is coming from the Federal Government structures as it were.

    Osun State Government has been accused of embarking on projects that are not viable. What is your reaction?

    I will not agree that Osun State embarked on projects that are not directly relevant to the welfare and wellbeing of the people. If you know the person of Ogbeni Aregbesola, the governor of the state of Osun, you will know that he is irrevocably committed to the welfare of the people. That is what he lives for, that is what he preaches. The OYES scheme has become a model not only for Nigeria, but for the whole of the world. Several governments in Nigeria have copied the project. In an economy like Osun, it is a civil service state; we have over 35,000 civil servants in the state, probably second to Lagos has much on its shoulder. What are we doing to the 35,000 civil servants in the state like Osun with struggling resources? That is where we found ourselves. As an elected government, trying to do something about that, the chances are that you may not survive it. But as a government, something has to be done about it. We inherited so much from the western region and Oyo State government before the creation of Osun. At a time we have Osun State indigenes who were in the service of Oyo. Fortunately and unfortunately, they were like the 80 percent of the Oyo State civil service, within that period we had a governor in Oyo State, who was from Osun, the late Bola Ige, his deputy Afolabi and Chief Bisis Akande the Secreatry to the government, all from the government of Oyo. When Osun State was created, the Oyo government cut off the civil service structure by indigene-ship, so people from Osun State were force to relocate. So, whether you had 100 directors and 80 percent of them were from Osun, they had to go. Whether Osun had the structure to accommodate them or not was immaterial. The OYES scheme is meant to keep some money in the economy of Osun. We found that the people who were making money from Osun have their business outside Osun. Aregbesola saw this and tried to create a way of circulating fund within Osun, in the hands of the people. That is how the idea of OYES came. This was also part of his campaign promises, that within his 100 days in office, he would employ so many numbers of youth. He created the OYES scheme that puts N200 million every months in the hands of people who would have to spend it on the economy of Osun. We had so many graduates who were jobless and we tried to mop them up. How the OYES scheme has been a waste, I don’t really know. The OYES scheme is like an entrepreneurial development programme, it’s not supposed to be a job. It is supposed to be a way to tell our youth that the only way to survive is not to look for monthly paid jobs. Every economy in the world thrives on small and medium enterprises. The organized private sector provides the job, while public sector employs less than 20 percent.

    But, the NLC suggested to the government to stop the school feeding programme…

    Remember that schools are built for children; they are built to educate our children. They are not built to create jobs. Yes, the NLC suggested the stopping of the school feeding programme, but stop the school feeding programme will stop the children from schooling. The feeding programme ensured that our pupil enrolment increased. It is the best in the world today by that standard. So, the parents do not have to worry about the feeding of their children at schools. With this, the child would get education; he would be taken off the streets.

  • Osun financial crisis: ‎Aregbesola, lawmakers hold conference

    Osun financial crisis: ‎Aregbesola, lawmakers hold conference

    Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola and the state and national assembly lawmakers are set to meet to proffer an enduring solution to the financial challenges facing the state.

    At a press briefing during the weekend in Osogbo, Osun state capital, a lawmaker, representing Ayedade/Isokan/Irewole federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Mrs. Ayo Omidiran, disclosed that meeting tagged Osun Stakeholders Conference‎ is scheduled to hold Monday.

    Omidiran in company of other lawmakers, including Hon. Ajibola Famurewa, representing Ile East/West and Atakumosa East/West federal constituency, Hon, Mojeed Alabi, repenting Iwo/Ola-Oluwa/Ejigbo federal constituency, and Hon. Bosun Oyintiloye, representing Obokun state, constituency, ‎disclosed that not less than 1000 stakeholders from the state will attend the conference.

    According to her, technocrats, former governors of the state and their deputies, formers speakers of both the national and state House of Assemblies, traditional rulers, labour unions, NGOs, religious leaders, elder statesmen, leaders of the opposition party (PDP), market women among others have been invited to the conference.

    She noted that the National Assembly members under the aegis of Osun Legislators Forum initiated the meeting.

    Omidiran said the conference was necessary following the financial crisis facing the stat over the months as result of incessant industrial actions over non-payment of salaries as well as abandonment of the gigantic projects that the governor has embarked upon to actualise the mega city vision in the state.

    She said: “We realised that the times are very hard for our people in the state. Whatever we are doing in Abuja, if our people are not happy, we too cannot be happy. It then means that the laws we are making won’t make sense. We want to let our people know that we are committed to their wellbeing.

    “The conference will present an opportunity for all stakeholders to hear from the horse’s mouth on how we got to this sorry pass. Governor Rauf Aregbesola will explain in clear terms during his submission the what, when, why and how. He will answer all our questions and lay all his cards on the table.

    “Stakeholders are expected to contribute intellectually through submissions based on facts and experiences so that at the end of the submit, we shall, together, and by the grace of God, proffer lasting solutions to the myriads of problems confronting our dear state.”

    Omidiran also disclosed that the recommendations from the summit would be submitted to the government which has the prerogative for implementation.

  • Osun has strengthened security around judge, says APC

    Osun has strengthened security around judge, says APC

    •Party: blackmailing governor over Oloyede’s safety ‘ll be futile

    Attempt by any group or persons to use the safety of Justice Folahanmi Oloyede as a strategy to throw Osun State into chaos would be futile, the state’s All Progressives Congress (APC) said yesterday.

    It explained that from the first day that the state government became aware of judge’s petition for the governor’s impeachment, special security arrangements were provided to prevent anything untoward happening to her.

    The party, which spoke in a statement by its spokesman, Kunle Oyatomi, said media campaigns alleging danger or insecurity to the life of Justice Oloyede were aimed at blackmailing the Governor Rauf Aregbesola administration.

    The party said: “Unknown to the sponsors of this wicked campaigns of calumny, right from day one that Justice Oloyede submitted her petition, the government had taken a proactive measure by alerting the head of the courts in Osun, Chief Justice Adepele Ojo and security agencies, including the police and the Department of State Services (DSS), to provide adequate and enhanced security around the person and residence of Justice Oloyede.

    “Justice Oloyede herself cannot deny the fact of this enhanced security around her person and residence up till now.”

    The statement added that Aregbesola took the precautionary measure, “bearing in mind what opponents of his administration were capable of orchestrating with the life of Justice Oloyede”.

    It added: “This is because of the antecedents of the sponsors of this inexplicable and unnecessary tension in our state that they might want to use the opportunity of her petition against the governor to unduly stoke crisis in the state.

    “It is, therefore, worrisome that several weeks after this had happened, the scallywags are still pursuing their totally untenable subversion of the popular will by campaigning on the pages of newspapers, a threat that never existed, except in their weird imagination and criminal intentions.”

    The APC called on the public to be wary of the activities of those plotting to throw the state into chaos, asking the security agencies to be alert.

    “This is to alert members of the public and all security agencies of the criminal intentions of the sponsors of these orchestrated campaigns to prevent our peaceful state from being plunged into needless anarchy.

    “Osun has been peaceful and remains so and any impression of tension or anarchy being created is just a manifestation of the evil plots of those who are in desperate pursuit of an agenda to plunge the state into crisis,” the statement said.