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Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
The Oyo State Executive Council under the leadership of Governor Seyi Makinde on Wednesday announced the approval of the reconstruction of the dilapidated 45.3-kilometre Saki-Ogbooro-Igboho Road through alternative project funding approach (APFA) of the state.
Daily Sun can authoritatively reveal that former deputy governor of the state on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from 2011 to 2019, Otunba Moses Adeyemo, hails from Ogbooro, and he also has ancestral root with Igboho, the hometown of another APC chieftain and former Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, Prof Dibu Ojerinde.
Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development in the state, Muyiwa Ojekunle, who briefed journalists on the outcome of the 28th executive council meeting of the state held on Tuesday, also disclosed that the project would gulp over N8.7billion, adding that the contract for the road was awarded to Messrs China Civil Engineering Corporation, and it is billed for completion in 18 months.
His words: “The council approved the reconstruction of 45.3km road from Saki to Ogbooro down to Igboho through APFA. This approach offers several advantages over the traditional payment method. All of us are aware of the condition we are in Nigeria today. The allocation to the state is being cut off and what we are receiving cannot be compared to what the past administration collected. So, the governor, in his magnanimity, decided to use this method, which we see is helping us.
“We are aware that the governor has decided to build his agenda on four pillars. This one is infrastructure because he links all his projects to one another. Once the road is rehabilitated, we will have a way of bringing our food to the mainstream because most of these foods are from a part of Oke-Ogun. And the governor has proven that all that he is doing is not centralised in one zone.”
Also, Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Dr. Abdul-Lateef Oyeleke, said the council approved the installation of 58 motorized boreholes across the 33 local government areas of the state at the cost of N712,202,900, and contract is expected to be concluded within six months of the approval, saying: “At the State Executive Council meeting that was held yesterday (Tuesday), 13th October 2020, we approved the installation of 58 boreholes across the 33 local governments within the state.
“It is important to remark that this contract was previously awarded by the previous administrations and the tenure of the last administration, which was subsequently revoked because of inadequacies, lack of transparency, fairness and accountability that was noticed in the award of such contract.”
Similarly, the Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Dr. Wasiu Olatunbosun, hinted that the executive council also approved semi-autonomy for four secondary hospitals owned by the state as the pilot scheme for quality health care delivery in the state, saying the hospitals are: Adeoyo Maternity Teaching Hospital, Ibadan; Ring Road State Hospital, Ibadan; State Hospital, Oyo; and newly commissioned Saki Specialist Hospital, Saki in Oke-Ogun.
He said there would be a monitoring committee that would monitor the autonomy of the hospitals, adding that the committee would be made up of representatives of the Ministers of Health and Finance, Hospital Management Board, Office of Accountant General and Auditor-General, Civil Service Commission, and Head of Service. The committee, he stated further, would be set up to midwife and ensure technical support for the initiatives.
Olatubosun said: “The Council also approved that the Ministry of Justice should prepare an amendment bill to existing Oyo State Hospital management law to reflect the new semi-autonomy initiative; to be eventually forwarded as an executive bill to the House of Assembly for appropriate legal backing. I want to say categorically that this administration is committed to the primary free health programme in the state. And that doesn’t affect the existing arrangement that we have on the ground but we are doing this for our people to enjoy better health services in the state.”
