The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Oyo

  • ‘Oyo can survive on cassava export’

    Oyo State can survive on exportation of cassava and other farm products, the  governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Teslim Folarin has said.

    He said the state is the second largest producer of cassava in Nigeria after Edo but it has not contributed to the country’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP) due to lack of proper management.

    Folarin, who spoke to journalists in his Oluyole, Ibadan home, lamented the dwindling international oil price.

    He said it was high time each state took steps on how to be financially independent, adding that he has plans to revive the farm settlement across the state if elected.

    According to Folarin, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will be strengthened to improve the output of agricultural sector and add to the state Gross Domestic Products (GDP).

    He noted that farm settlement across the state would be empowered and resuscitated to fulfil its initial objective.

    “We have been talking about diversifying form oil for the past many years but nobody seems to act on it because there are so much money coming from Abuja. Now, there is no money in Abuja again and either we like it or not, we have to take step now.

    “Look at cassava for instance, we can run Oyo State on cassava alone. Oyo State is the second largest producer of cassava after Edo state and it does not contribute to our Gross Domestic Products (GDP) because we don’t export cassava.

    “All we need to do is to mobilise our people to double their effort in production and start to export products of our farm settlement. We also need to strengthen our ministry of agric and rural development so as to improve our output in agricultural sector. We cannot continue waiting for the money from Abuja,” he noted.

  • How SARS bust goat stealing syndicate in Oyo

    How SARS bust goat stealing syndicate in Oyo

    The strong arm of the law has finally caught a syndicate in Oyo town, Oyo state that specializes in stealing goats. BODE DUROJAIYE reports that men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) Oyo/Ogbomoso axis have equally smashed a seven-man gang of car snatching armed robbers

    For some time now, residents of Oyo metropolis in Oyo State have been under the siege of a syndicate that specializes in the stealing of goats.

    The criminal group, comprising able-bodied young men had carried out series of raids in the town and environs around midnight picking up goats after feeding them with a mixture of corn, beans and salt.

    The Nation gathered that while the unsuspecting animals were eating this mixture, the criminals who were on standby picked them one after the other and sealed their mouth with tape, to prevent them from making noise. Thereafter, the animals were always packed into a van for onward transportation to Lagos, where the buyers were waiting.

    However, nemesis recently caught up with some members of the syndicate when men of the Oyo/ Ogbomoso annex of the Special Anti- Robbery Squad (SARS), who were on patrol along Oyo/ Ibadan expressway intercepted two vehicles loaded with 40 goats.

    One of the recovered vehicles with the stolen goats had a Lagos State registration number DL 135 GGE and was found on the expressway around 2:30a.m with three men inside it.

    According to the Officer-in charge of SARS, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Sola Aremu, suspicious movement of the vehicle compelled his men to go on its trail, pointing out that the moment those inside the vehicle noticed that Police were on their trail, they increased their speed.

    “The robber’s vehicle later ran into a big pothole and had a flat tyre. Before we got there, they had escaped into the nearby bush. We combed and searched everywhere but could not find them. We went back to search the vehicle and found 26 goats with their mouth taped, a locally made pistol, four rounds of cartridges and some wraps of Indian hemp. We took the vehicle to our office, and changed our operational vehicle to make it difficult for easy identification by the criminals.”

    DSP Aremu further hinted that on reaching the same spot, his men saw another vehicle with registration number ABUJA BG 372 RSH, which also contained three men making calls inside it.

    “Similar thing happened when they saw us, they zoomed off, on a very high speed towards Ibadan. Unfortunately for them, while attempting to negotiate the bend at Sasa, Ibadan end of the express way, they ran into a deep ditch. They immediately came out of their vehicle and started firing gunshot at us. In the course of the gun battle one of them was shot dead, while the two others escaped into the bush.”

    He added that when the vehicle was searched, 14 goats were found also with their mouth taped, and some wraps of Indian hemp. The vehicle, he said was later towed to the SARS office at Durbar, Oyo town.

    And in another crime busting operation, Aremu and his men have smashed a seven-man car robbery syndicate that had been terrorizing Oyo, Ogbomoso[Oyo State], Osogbo [Osun State], and Ilorin[Kwara State]  for some time. Their activities had become so frightening and deadly that scores of residents were reported to have fallen to their bullets, after being dispossessed of their belongings.

    The age category of these notorious gang members range between 20 and 25 years, as the sophistication of equipment, as well as arms and ammunitions used in their dastard operations were also worrisome to the defenceless residents.

    The Nation gathered that whenever they successfully carried out any operation, the syndicate ended up at a popular hotel in Ikeja, Lagos, to share both cash and other loots, including exotic cars snatched from the people at gunpoint.

    In one of their operations, the gang robbed a retired military officer, a Rear Admiral of his exotic Highlander jeep put at a cost of N6.5million, at his residence in Ogbomoso. Other items stolen include two laptops, jewelleries, I-phone, and a bunch of keys. It proved to be their last operation.

    The retired military officer reported the matter to the SARS at Oyo town and DSP Aremu and his men swung into action. Acting on intelligence, they busted into one of the suspected criminals’ hideouts in Ogbomoso, where a suspect was arrested with the complainant’s stolen I-phone.

    Interrogation of the suspect led to the arrest of another ‘’powerful’’ member of the gang, a staff of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria [PHCN] in Ibadan.

    The Nation gathered that following another tip off, SARS men were able to intercept the gang’s attempt to carry out an operation in Ogbomoso, as the criminals were arrested while a stolen Camry car,

    arms and ammunitions were also recovered.

    Information gathered from those arrested, later led to the interception and arrest of another ‘powerful’ member of the gang in Ibadan while attempting to escape to Lagos.

    He was said to have engaged SARS men in a tough battle which lasted for almost an hour before he was eventually overpowered. One of the SARS men who was injured on his left eye while the gun duel lasted was later taken to the hospital. The confession of the ‘powerful’ member of the gang led to the arrest of leader of the gang, Dapo, popularly known as ‘Dapson’.

    About five stolen vehicles, including that of the retired military officer were recovered from Dapo after his arrest at the popular hotel in Ikeja, Lagos by men of the anti-robbery squad.

    A total of thirteen stolen vehicles were recovered from the gang, while all the notorious gang members were apprehended and currently in custody.

    Confirming the incidents, the SARS commander told The Nation that the notorious gang killed a medical doctor at Takie, Ilorin, Kwara State, in one of their operations.

    According to him,’’ the medical doctor was about to open the gate of his house after returning from the day’s work when the gang opened fire and killed him. Unknown to him [medical doctor] he was

    being trailed right from the office, they [notorious gang] took away his two vehicles after killing him’’.

    Following the successful bursting of the robbery syndicate and the recovery of the stolen vehicles by SARS, residents of Oyo and Ogbomoso towns trooped out in their thousands to catch a glimpse of the stolen vehicles and heaped praises on the gallant policemen.

     

     

  • ‘Stop deceiving Oyo electorate’

    A member of the House of Representatives representing Ibadan North, Abiodun Awoleye, has warned President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to stop deceiving the people with the creation of Ibadan state.

    He said the President cannot create a state without the approval of the National Assembly. Awoleye said state creation remains one of the duties of the National Assembly and not the PDP or President Jonathan.

    Awoleye cautioned the party against using the creation of Ibadan state as a campaign tool, saying Ibadan state remains the priority of every politician in the state.

    The lawmaker berated the strategy, wondering why the party did not create Ibadan state in the last six years.

    He said: “I don’t know why PDP and President Jonathan are deceiving our  people with state creation.

    “He does not have power to create state without the approval of the National Assembly. Our people are very intelligent in Oyo State and they are watching as events unfold.”

  • NAFDAC sanctions 1,000 in Oyo

    NAFDAC sanctions 1,000 in Oyo

    The outgoing Oyo State Coordinator of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Rev. Benjamin Haruna, has said in the last six years, the agency sanctioned over 1000 individuals for unregistered products, sales of fake products, parallel importation and unsatisfactory factory productions.

    Haruna, the agency’s director, Chemical, Cosmetics and Medical Devices, Ports Authority, Lagos, said this at his send off in Ibadan.

    “During the six years that I was the state coordinator, we penalised not less than 1,000 people for offences stipulated by the agency.

    “The challenges encountered when we came in some years back was that there wasn’t much awareness about the activities of the agency, so we have to reach out to the people at the grassroots.

    “We also have logistics problem, we did not have enough vehicles before. We were also short of staff when I came in because we had six workers then but now we have 22. Another challenge is the small office space we have now for our staff and equipment.

    “We established the agency’s desk officers in each local government, we ensure massive awareness, collaboration with necessary organisations and sanctioned people found culpable.”

  • Oyo Assembly removes caretakers

    The Oyo State House of Assembly has directed the Head of Local Government Administration (HLA) of the 33 local governments to take over the administration of the councils.

    The Speaker, Mrs. Monsurat Sunmonu, announced the decision during plenary yesterday. She directed the auditor-general of local governments to appear before the House on Monday with audited copies of the activities of each local government in the last three years.

  • Oyo APC petitions police

    Oyo APC petitions police

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State has petitioned the commissioner of police, following an attack on the convoy of the wife of the governor, Mrs Florence Ajimobi, in Ibadan, the state capital.

    The party alleged that some political thugs believed to be working for a former governor waylaid the governor’s wife, who was returning from an engagement and caught up with the occupants of the last two cars in the convoy.

    In a statement by its Director of Publicity and Strategy, Olawale Sadare, the APC alleged that some thugs on the ex-governor’s payroll led the attacks, resulting in the destruction of two of the vehicles in Mrs. Ajimobi’s convoy.

    He gave the names of the perpetrators as Ekugbemi, Agunbiade and Saidi (aka SP).

    “It is not surprising that the ex-governor and his cohorts are doing everything possible to disrupt the existing peace and tranquility in the state.

    “We call on security agents to bring the perpetrators of this dastardly act to justice and keep a tab on all the politicians in the state so that the people can continue to enjoy peace.”

  • …For the sake of Oyo’s future

    …For the sake of Oyo’s future

    This electoral season has thrown up so many issues. One of them is the debate over whether the jinx of second term can be broken by some governors. Oyo is one of the states where it is believed, whether rightly or wrongly, that a sitting governor cannot be re-elected twice. This position did not just come out of the blues. It has empirical foundation in successive administrations in the states whose henchmen – governors – were not given the mandate to run for a second term in office.

    For instance, in the aborted second republic, the late Chief Bola Ige, the first civilian governor of old Oyo State under the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) was voted out in the 1983 general elections. That election, believed to have been rigged for Dr Omololu Olunloyo of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), had serious reverberations round the state and the attendant consequences in Oyo and other southwest states reasonably culminated in the return of the military during that epoch.

    When a military-guided democracy returned in 1991 under military despot Ibrahim Babangida, Chief Kolapo Ishola contested for the seat on the Social Democratic Party (SDP) platform and could not even complete his term before despotic military leader, Sani Abacha carried out a palace coup against the Interim National Government (ING), dissolving all democratic structures in the process. That marked the Nunc dimittis of the Ishola government in Oyo State.

    The Fourth Republic that was guided by General Abdulsalami Abubakar came after the demise of Abacha and the late Lam Adesina of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) emerged as governor in 1999. In the state’s typical fashion, he was voted out in 2003 by the people of that state. Subsequently, Adewolu Ladoja of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) became the governor. His tenure was beleaguered and unfocused and he was eventually succeeded by his deputy, Adebayo Alao-Akala who was also voted out of office after just one term of miliki and igbadun governance. The demise of Alao-Akala government marked the end of PDP reign in that state. Then entered the new and current governor of the state, Abiola Ajimobi in 2011 on the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) platform. He is now seeking another term in the  February 28 governorship election under the more formidable All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Yet, most people within and outside the state believe this to be an impossible mission simply because it has never been done. Will the second term jinx be broken this time around? This is the question that this month’s election will provide answer to, particularly in Oyo State where the issue of second term

    jinx is on the front burner. What is going to happen at the end of the day in Oyo State? Will Ajimobi be returned for second term in office as governor? The truth of the matter is that there are some insinuations of misdemeanour on the part of the governor. Some perceive the governor as snooty and elitist; others condemn him for having allegedly given his wife too much latitude in the running of his administration.

    The two allegations are self-adjustable though the governor, in a recent interview in the Sunday title of this paper, denied ever relinquishing the running of his government to his wife whom he said was merely in charge of women affairs, nothing more. He, however, professed his unwavering love for his wife, a passion he had no apology for. His reason: He has just one wife unlike most ofhis other opponents that have wives and uncountable concubines. On the allegation of Ajimobi being conceited, this could as well be realisation of self-worth but by now, the governor ought to realise that in politics, a power holder must come down to the level of the people.

    Whatever some people might perceive as Ajimobi’s misgivings should have been nullified by the fact that nobody has publicly accused him of non-performance or fraud.

    Moreover, the man in nearly four years has performed more than all the governors produced by the state. Anyone who is conversant with Ibadan, capital of Oyo State for instance, will realise that the ante of development has been upped by Ajimobi. The air of freshness and neatness that has engulfed the landscape of Ibadan is something that was alien to that ancient town. Now, Ibadan is reasonably cleaner and neater when compared to the town’s air-fouling status of the past that previous administrations in the state failed to convincingly address. The overhead bridge at the Mokola Junction is a marvel to the air which only a progressive government of the APC can provide. Afterall, the PDP has been in charge of the state for years without known noticeable improvements in the general wellbeing of the state.

    One interesting area where Ajimobi has made remarkable progress is that of peace which is the bedrock of any meaningful development. Prior to his coming into

    office, members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Ibadan especially, had turned the state into one battle-field where blood must flow every week. The era of lethal Tokyo and Eleweomo under Ladoja and Alao-Akala when residents of the ancient town lived in perpetual fear of violence that was then a recurring decimal is gone as Ajimobi, with deft determination, weeded all the miscreants away.

    The irony of it all is that these former governors of the state that were unable to bring tangible peace, security and development to Oyo State while in the saddle are now the leading contestants for the governorship slot with the incumbent. The people of that state must read between the lines and not play unreasonable politics of undue sentiment with the sustenance of their development which Ajimobi represents.

    This column believes that if the people of the state truly want development and sustained peace and harmony, they should ignore whatever shortcomings political opponents are trying to robe Ajimobi with and show purposeful mission by re-electing him in the coming election. This, in view of prevailing empirical facts, is the only guarantee of clear aversion for the nauseating looting and misgovernance of the past. ‘Forward ever, backward never,’ should be their new-found anthem now!

  • Rodents, termites take over judges quarters in Oyo

    Rodents, termites take over judges quarters in Oyo

    The official quarters built for judges and magistrates in Oyo town, Oyo State have been taken over by undesirable elements after they were abandoned by the jurists. BODE DUROJAIYE reports that the

    Miscreants, rodents, termites and similar dangerous creatures have taken over the official quarters of Judges and Magistrates deployed to the temple of justice in the Oyo judicial division of the Oyo State judiciary.

    And unless urgent steps are taken to rehabilitate the buildings built since colonial time and already in various stages of collapse, the hopes of litigants in the area in securing smooth dispensation of justice may be forlorn.

    The quarters located at the government reservation area, Apitipiti, have not only been overgrown with thick weeds, all the fittings and house hold materials inside have been completely vandalized.

    Our correspondent reliably learnt than judges decided to abandon the quarters some years ago, for what they described as “security laxity”.

    The jurists argument, it was gathered was that the only access road to the GRA was porous, thereby making the quarters vulnerable to criminal activities.

    Consequently, judges and even the magistrates have had to travel from Ibadan, the state capital (a distance of between one or two hours depending on the traffic along the highway) to the ancient town to attend to litigations.

    Often times, both the litigants and lawyers were disappointed and frustrated as a result of frequent adjournment of cases by the judges, who could not come to court on time and as often as expected due to the stressful and heavy traffic hold ups along Ibadan /Oyo road.

    The situation has become worrisome as suspects awaiting trials are languishing in the federal prisons at Abolongo, along Ogbomoso Road, indefinitely, due to inability of judges to try them as at when due.

    Some of the lawyers interviewed told The Nation that the frequent adjournment of cases was an aberration to the dispensation of justice.

    According to them, “we are really disturbed and feeling bad about the development. But don’t blame the judges, but the government that fails to provide enabling environment for the jurists to operate, it is indeed unfortunate.’’

    A litigant, Mr. Adio Adelana, wondered why the state government could not construct befitting residential quarters for the judges and provide adequate security for them.

    “I have a case in one of the courts in Oyo town, which is being adjourned frequently due to inability of the presiding judge to come down from Ibadan, as a result of traffic hold up. It is a worrisome development indeed”.

     

    development is causing delay in the dispensation of justice in the ancient town.

  • Oyo: Between peace and violence

    It is good to appraise the state of peace in Oyo State, as opposed to what it was before now. The world knows that the state was a bedlam before Governor Abiola Ajimobi took over the reins of office on May 29, 2011. Violence of the most horrendous form was in place. The violence that the state witnessed under Rashidi Ladoja and Adebayo Alao-Akala was worse than that of Hiroshima and Nagazaki. The typecast of the state was that of a state of filth and brigandage.

    True to his promise, the governor hit the ground running by proscribing the reactionary NURTW on June 6, 2011 as an aftermath of the violence that erupted at Iwo Road the previous day in which 20 people died. The governor did not allow any of the factions to operate until the national leadership of the union undertook to whip the warlords into line. To further instill sanity in the system, the governor inaugurated a joint security patrol squad on December 9, 2011, codenamed Operation Burst; whose personnel were deployed to the six geo-political zones of the state. Buoyed by the donation of three Armoured Personnel Carriers, 117 operational vehicles and seven power bikes by the state government, the alignment of forces restored peace and security in the state.  To further boost the morale of the police, the governor refurbished grounded police patrol vans. The governor also established the Oyo State Security Trust Fund to engender public-private partnership on security in the state.

    The concomitant effect of the governor’s efforts became manifest when more than eight industrial giants were attracted to the state. In a bid to further attract local and foreign investors, including in the agriculture sector, the government granted concession of between 70 and 90 per cent on land acquisition. Also, the government granted a substantial tax holiday for up to seven years to eligible industries.

    It is gratifying to know that industries such as Shoprite, Agric Tech, Oriental Foods, Joy Foods, Rahvet International Limited, Sajrom Farm Limited, Palm Royale Farm, Fedkot Nigeria Limited, HaulTrac Nigeria Limited, UPDC, HPC Architecture and Engineering Limited and Kamal Milk have berthed in Ibadan following the congenial environment. None of these giant companies could have come to the state when Ladoja and Akala’s governments, renowned for unbridled violence, were in place. The bespatterd body of a renowned anvil of past governments and their faithful, Eleweomo, whose gory imagery reminds one of allegation of former Senate Leader, Teslim Folarin’s complicity is enough for any sane person never to wish for a return to those gory old days.

    According to Ajimobi, the reversal of the old order of violence had generated close to one million direct and indirect employments for citizens of the state. In a similar vein, the National Bureau of Statistics put the capital inflow into the state at approximately $3.49 million in its third quarter report for 2014. This signaled an increase of 697 per cent when compared with the $500,000 recorded between the first and second quarter of the year.

    That only four murder cases were recorded in 2014 as listed in the State Police Command Crime Rates Statistics for the year pales into insignificance when compared with the 121 cases before 2011. Oyo State was also said to have recorded only four armed robbery incidents in the whole of 2014, with none affecting the banks. The only attempt to rob a new generation bank in Bodija was repelled by men of Operation Burst. Three kidnap cases were recorded as against 45 before 2011. The statistics also indicated that no single case of murder, arson or grievous harm and wounding was reported at any police formation in 2014.

    In acknowledgment of Governor Ajimobi’s peace-building efforts, the governor bagged an award as the Best Governor on Conflict Resolution in Nigeria from the Security Watch Africa, on October 19, 2012 in Ghana.

    It is equally not by happenstance that the British Deputy High Commissioner in Nigeria, Mr. Peter Carter, recognized that “Ibadan is rapidly developing. It is very pleasant for me to be in the city that is fast looking into the future.” He was reported to have made the comment during a visit to Governor Ajimobi, as reported in the October 10, 2013 edition of The Nation newspaper. During the parley, the governor was quoted to have told his guest that the New York Times listed Oyo State as one of the preferred destinations for investors in Africa due to the ‘peaceful environment, availability of infrastructure and landmass.’

    Also in the June 19, 2013 edition of The Nation newspaper, one of the widows of the deceased enfant terrible, Bose Adedibu, a staunch PDP member said, “In all honesty, without being biased Governor Ajimobi is doing well. There is peace and security now compared with the violence and thuggery that used to be perpetrated by street urchins. I remember vividly that at that time, the people of Oyo State lived in perpetual fear of insecurity. But now, everywhere is peaceful and people are going about their businesses without fear of molestation.”

    However, security agents should be commended for curtailing the crisis in the Born Foto and Popoyemoja areas of Ibadan in November/December 2014, which was instigated by street urchins to truncate the pervading peace in Oyo State.

    For us in the state, the story of our horrendous past in the hands of past governments of the state is not a fluke, even though it reads like one from Hammer House of Horror. It was a period of our lives that we will not pray to relive. If Nigeria were a country where statistics were held seriously, by now, we would have been overwhelmed by the number of deaths recorded between the two regimes. Hundreds of families who lost their breadwinners in the fracas or the hundred others who were felled by stray bullets are living testimonies of the reign of terror of the past.

    Like Fayose Ayodele did pre-election in Ekiti State, the contenders for Agodi Government House who were principals of the violence, have literally been campaigning that they are now ‘born again’. The tenuousness of such promise can be seen in the state of things in Ekiti now when Fayose beguiled the people to vote for him.

    As the February 28, governorship election beckons, the choice before the electorate is between the peace and industrial development associated with the Ajimobi’s government and the violence and brigandage that reigned supreme when two of his two major contenders ruled the state as governors. Like in the holy writ, the people of Oyo State would on February 28, , choose whom they shall vote for: the spirit of dove or Belzeebub and his violence.

     

    • Inakoju teaches in a secondary school in Ibadan.

     

  • Stop insulting Oyo workers, says APC

    Stop insulting Oyo workers, says APC

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State has warned the governorship candidates of Accord, Rashidi Ladoja and his counterpart in the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Seyi Makinde, to stop insulting civil servants, who they alleged have been forced to support Governor Abiola Ajimobi.

    In a statement by its Director of Publicity and Strategy, Olawale Sadare, the APC faulted the allegations that Governor Abiola Ajimobi was coercing civil servants, including teachers, to support his re-election bid.

    The statement reads: “In Oyo State, and indeed across the globe, public/civil servants, including teachers are recognised as a population of discerning, informed and dynamic minds. Therefore, it would be wrong for any individual, group or political party to describe them as worthless puppets, who could be treated with disdain or disrespect in the name of playing politics.

    “For the record, Sen. Ajimobi has impacted positively on the lives of teachers more than any other governor before him.

    “He has instituted life insurance policy for civil and public servants;  100 per cent upward review of housing loans for civil and public servants from N1million to N2million;  150 per cent upward review of car loans to civil and public servants from N200,000 to N500,000; clearing of outstanding promotions for workers spanning 2009 to 2012; raising the bar of graduate primary school teachers from GL 14 to 15 and gazzetting the employment of public primary and secondary school teachers.

    “And to crown it all, Ajimobi administration has prevented the people of the state including workers from falling victims of insecurity and political violence while it also reduced the workload of teachers with the recent appointment of 5,300 people to work in public schools as teaching and non-teaching staff.