• Makinde promises to make state peaceful, attractive
• Afenifere expresses worry over insecurity,
• Lauds governor on infrastructural development
• Stakeholders proffer solutions to menace
The Oyo State House of Assembly, yesterday, approved the request of the state government to access additional N2 billion loan facility from the Fidelity Bank Plc at a concessional interest rate of 12 per cent yearly and a repayment period of 12 months.
The facility is required to finance donor-assisted projects across the state. The Speaker, Adebo Ogundoyin, said that it was imperative and expedient for Oyo State Government to fulfil its own part of the project agreement so as to ensure speedy completion of the projects.
IN another development, Governor Seyi Makinde, yesterday, said his administration would continue to maintain religious harmony and peaceful co-existence despite religious diversity in the state.
Makinde, who gave the promise, while hosting members of Nigeria Inter-religious Council (NIREC), led by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III and the President, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Supo Ayokunle, in his office, said the state had remained peaceful despite its diversity.
In his remarks, the Sultan of Sokoto, commended the governor for uplifting the state by taking it to greater heights. Also, Ayokunle said that people had been living together in the atmosphere of peace and tranquility in the state.
MEANWHILE, the Oyo State Chapter of Afenifere, popularly called Afenifere Ipinle Oyo, has expressed worry over insecurity in the state, following alleged attacks on Yoruba youths by Fulani herdsmen at Alaga on Iseyin-Saki Road on June 18, 2022.
The group also recalled the Owo massacre and abduction of Rt. Revd. Aderogba on Oyo-Ogbomoso Road, penultimate week.
These were contained in a communique issued at the end of the group’s monthly meeting in Ibadan and signed by the state’s Publicity Secretary, Remi Adegbola.
The group, while wishing the victims quick recovery, urged Governor Makinde “to cause the Oyo State Police Command to fish out the hoodlums and make them face the music for their dastardly act.”
It, therefore, appealed to Nigerian politicians to tread softly, eschew politics of bitterness and violence as they go about their campaigns, saying: “Their campaigns must be in the interest of the masses.”
The socio-cultural organisation also lauded Makinde for various infrastructural projects his administration is executing in the state.
RELATEDLY, critical stakeholders have proffered possible solution to the insecurity challenges across the state. They stressed the need for traditional leaders to join in solving the problems.
The stakeholders, including former Secretary to Oyo State Government and Maye Balogun of Ibadanland, Chief Sharafadeen Alli; President-General, Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII), Oluyemisi Adeaga and others, stated this during a public lecture, titled: “Ibadan: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,” organised by the Oluseye Ojo-led Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Oyo State Council, held at the Press Centre, Iyaganku, Ibadan, in commemoration of 100 days of Olubadan on the throne.
The Oyo South senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alli, who spoke on the theme, said that the leadership of Ibadanland had set up neighbourhood security network to tackle civil disturbance, gangsterism and hooliganism that have constituted security threats to the future of the city.
Also, Adeaga, in his remarks, said: “Security is a technical issue and not about physical assault. A lot of things are being deployed to resolve security challenges. Apart from the psychological aspect of it, there is deployment of IT for solution to security challenges. Even at Ibadan level, we have a network of security revolving round all mogajis, baales and chiefs of Ibadanland.”
Source the guardian news
