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Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Oyo State Executive Council (SEC), yesterday, approved procurement of 100 units of KIA RIO 1.4 Executive Automatic Transmission saloon cars for security agencies and over 2.7 million exercise books for students in the public primary and secondary schools.
SEC gave the approval during its inaugural meeting presided over by Governor Seyi Makinde.
Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Wasiu Olatubosun, who was supported by his counterpart from the Ministry of Works and Transport, Raphael Afonja, disclosed when they briefed journalists at the end of the meeting.
The meeting, which was held at the Executive Council Chambers of the Governor’s Office, was attended by the Deputy Governor, Rauf Olaniyan; Secretary to the State Government, Olubamiwo Adeosun; Chief of Staff to the governor, Bisi Ilaka; as well as commissioners and other principal officers of the administration.
Olatubosun said the council approved N832,650,000 for the purchase of the vehicles to strengthen the security architecture of the state, adding that due process was followed in the approval of the vehicle that will be supplied by KIA products major distributor in Nigeria, to among other things, commemorate 100 days in office of Governor Makinde.
He also said 1,515,864 exercise books of 60 pages each would be distributed to pupils in public primary schools and junior secondary schools, known as ‘Basics 1-9, adding that the 252,644 pupils would get six exercise books each.
Olatubosun also said 1,266,942 exercise books would be distributed to students in senior secondary school classes, and the 211,157 students would be given six exercise books of 80 leaves each.
He added that N447,257,384.10 was approved for the 2,782,806 exercise books.
The figures of the students, according to him, was based on enrolment figures obtained from the Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and Ministry of Education for 2019/2020 academic session, which will start by middle of September.
Makinde, had in his opening remarks, congratulated the commissioners, and charged them to contribute meaningfully to the progress of the state, saying: “This is the first executive council meeting in this administration. It is pertinent for you to make your contributions here. Nobody will hold anybody to ransom for your contributions. You should not hold anything back because the more robust our discussion, the more robust our argument, the better the decisions that will come out from this executive chambers.
“I look forward to decisions that will impact the lives of our people, and that will bring accelerated development to Oyo State, decisions that will make us the true pace setter state.
“Personally, in my own family, I am not the brightest person. I am not the smartest. So, also here. I don’t think my opinion should be taken all the time. You can challenge it. So, also whatever anyone of you brings to the table, we will challenge it. At the end of the day, we want to align for the interest of our people. We should not allow our personal interests to override our official conduct. We should hold ourselves accountable.”
