NEWS

HIT THE GROUND RUNNING, SANWO-OLU TELLS NEW POLITICAL APPOINTEES, PERM SECS

Published

10 months ago

January 27, 2020

…Gov: You Are Brought To Add Value To Service

Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has charged newly appointed members of Lagos State Cabinet as well as Commissioners in the State’s civil service commission to kick off action immediately.

The Governor said this on Monday at the Lagos House, Alausa during the swearing in of three new members of the State executive council, members of the Civil Service Commission and five Permanent Secretaries.

In his remarks, Sanwo-Olu urged the new appointees to further add value to the administration toward delivering democratic dividends to Lagosians.

The Governor said the new appointees were called to serve from the pool of numerous competent and highly qualified Lagosians, saying they must work hard to justify the confidence reposed in them with the appointment.

He said: “You have been brought on to add value in our quest to deliver the dividend of democracy to the citizens. We are pushing the emblem of our party and we have started implementing several programmes under our project T.H.E.M.E.S.

“We must remember that in four months time, we will be celebrating our first anniversary.

“The question that people will be asking is that what have we done in one year? Time will come and time will go but it is what we do with time that prosperity will judge us with. The essence of this reminder is to keep each and everyone of us on the go and to let you know that we need to hit the ground running.

He added: “We cannot afford to be complacent in our approach to governance because there is so much to be accomplished within the 1,460 days that we are rushing against. We cannot afford not to succeed because our success has indication for the mission’s wellbeing. We owe it a duty to live up to the reputation of centre of excellence through the injection of innovative and visionary ideas into governance.”

The new political appointees are one Commissioner and two Special Advisers, who will be joining the State Executive Council. They are Engineer Paul Bamgbose Martins was sworn in as the new Commissioner for Special Duties and Intergovernmental Relations, Mr. Gbenga Oyerinde is Special Adviser to the Governor on Central Business District and Mr. Ganiu Adele Ayuba is the Special Adviser, Urban Development.

Also, Mrs. Regina Fabanwo was sworn in as the new Chairman, Lagos Civil Service Commission along with Mr. Adeshina Odeyemi, Honourable Avoseh Suru; Hon Kamal Olorunoje and Barrister Babatunde Seriki who will serve as Commissioners in the Commission.

The five new Permanent Secretaries are Mr. Olujimi Ige, Debt Management Office; Mrs. Kafayat Ajenifuja, Parastatal Monitoring Office; Mr. Hakeem Adeniji Oduyinka, Office of the Civic Engagement; Mr Isaac Olushina Thorpe, Ministry of Information and Strategy while Dr. Aina Ayoola moves up as the PS Primary Healthcare Board.

The Governor reiterated his administration’s determination to ensure that it delivers time bound and people focused programmes that will positively impact Lagosians on a daily basis.

Earlier, the Lagos State Head of Service, Mr. Hakeem Muri-Okunola, described the Governor as a team player, saying it was in this spirit that he appointed more hands to further deliver on the T.H.E.M.E.S agenda of his administration.

The occasion was graced by the Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat; Secretary to the State Government, Mrs. Folashade Jaji; past and present members of the Federal and State House of Assembly and well wishers of the newly appointed members.

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NEWS

NO PARDON FOR RAPISTS, GENDER VIOLENCE OFFENDERS - SANWO-OLU

Published

12 hours ago

November 27, 2020

Segun Lawal

Disturbed by the escalation in cases of sexual and gender-based violence, and absence of unified protocols to get justice for the victims, First Lady of Lagos State, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, urged the Government to step up the response geared towards reducing the criminal acts to the barest minimum.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu hearkened to the call, vowing that no offender indicted in reported cases of rape and gender-based violence will go scot free under his watch.

The Governor gave the assurance on Thursday when he received a 54-page compendium on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence compiled by the Stakeholders’ Committee set up by the First Lady to give recommendations on how the fight against the crime can be won.

Sanwo-Olu, who is the Incident Commander for gender-based violence in Lagos, reiterated his administration’s commitment to protecting the vulnerable demographics and getting justice for victims violated.

He said the State Government would be prioritising budgetary allocations to the Ministry of Justice for the acceleration of offenders’ prosecution, while also supporting Government’s agencies working in the areas of rehabilitation and integration of victims.

The Governor said: “I am delighted by the work done by the Stakeholders’ Committee to bring attention to the problems facing voiceless adults and children in our society. Through your efforts, vulnerable people are building the courage to speak out on offences of sexual violence and heal their wounds.

“We will bring people who have been perpetrating this crimes, knowingly or unknowingly, to book. We will ensure they never walk freely without the full wrath of the law brought upon them. It is part of our responsibility to ensure that the vulnerable members of our society have a voice and have access to where they can get justice when their rights are violated.”

Having identified ways to ramp up the response, Sanwo-Olu charged the Stakeholders’ Committee to focus its activism and advocacy on mental health issue as one of the main factors responsible for sexual and gender-based violence.

The Governor praised the First Lady for her leadership in bringing the team members together and for showing interest in issues bordering rights of the vulnerable and women development.

Dr. Sanwo-Olu said her drive was to work with the Committee and create a society where gender-based violence would be reduced to barest minimum.

She said she had been leveraging the privilege attached to the Office of First Lady to champion continuous advocacy and push actions to rein in sexual offenders.

The First Lady said: “The stakeholders have been having meetings for months and their discussions have focused on the key development pillars of the current administration as they relate to the rights of vulnerable citizens, especially those women and children.

“The Office of the First Lady has been working with the vision to reduce sexual and gender-based violence to the barest minimum if it is impossible to eradicate the crime. We have activated our response, bringing all stakeholders and communities on board to forge a common front in addressing the issue.”

Dr. Sanwo-Olu made a case of the establishment of Sexual Assault Referral Centres where all stakeholders can attend to and dispose of cases without delay. She also canvassed for the setting up of Government-owned shelters to rehabilitate survivors, stressing that the centres must be opened in the five traditional divisions of the State.

As part of the 12-point resolutions recommended by the Stakeholders’ Committee to stem sexual and gender-based violence, the First Lady called for introduction of sex offenders’ register that will be backed by legislation.

The Committee also called for increase in budgetary support to agencies of Government fight for sex violence, among other.

While receiving the compendium from the First Lady, Sanwo-Olu said some of the resolutions recommended by the committee required immediate escalation, promising to work with the Committee in addressing bottleneck slowing down the efforts.

The stakeholders that took part in the meeting include Ministries of Justice, Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Health, Education, Youth and Social Development, and Information and Strategy.

Others are the Office of the Public Defender, Police Force, and Lagos State Judiciary.

NEWS

N17bn loan will develop our agric sector, create jobs…Bayelsa Govt

Published

2 days ago

November 25, 2020

Segun Lawal

The Bayelsa State government has explained that the N17 billion facility it is processing is for the purpose of boosting the state’s economy through the development of its agricultural sector, create jobs and raise its internally generated revenue profile. The Commissioner for Finance, Mr Maxwell Ebibai, stated this while reacting to questions after rendering the statement of accounts for the income and expenditure of the state for August, September and October 2020.

“We decided to approach the state House of Assembly for approval to collect the facility for the purpose of developing our palm oil and our other agricultural potential.

“The Bayelsa government is not collecting N17 billion to spend on recurrent expenditure. Rather our citizens involved in commercial agriculture would benefit from it and the process would also generate employment for our people and boost our revenue too,” he said. While noting that the money is yet to be collected, Mr Ebibai explained that the N17billion facility is in three parts: N10billion from the Central Bank of Nigeria, with flexible repayment terms, and that the facility is open to all states in the country.

He said the N4billion is a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) counterpart fund, which would be deployed into fixing some of the state’s road infrastructure, provision of potable water, rehabilitation of schools and primary healthcare facilities; and lastly the N3billion is a revolving temporary credit facility, with a 12-month tenor to fund financing gap whenever there is a shortfall in monthly revenue accruing to the state. He pointed out that in recent times there had been a sharp decline in revenues from the Federation Account to the state as a result of statutory deductions, which had impacted the state’s economy negatively. Ebibai maintained that it was necessary to obtain the loan in order to make up the gap in the event of revenues falling below a certain threshold to enable the state to manage its economy.

“We are aware that the national economy has gone into another recession. Invariably, if the economy is bad, you can do things to reflate it and put money in the hands of the people,” he said. Ebibai further stated that the loan and debt profile of the state is not hidden as it is published on the Federal Government’s Debt Management Office website for anyone to see and that through the transparency briefings, the government declares the income and expenditure of the state regularly. “The loan profile of the Bayelsa State Government is there on the Debt Management Office (DMO) website.

You will see the breakdown of the loans and what they were used for. You have the full details and the public document is there.” He contended that it is the government’s responsibility to do what it considers to be in the best interest of the people by being responsive to situations in averting financial crisis. “The steps we are taking show that the government of Senator Douye Diri is thinking ahead, envisaging situations and responding to them even before they arise,” he said.

NEWS

LASUBEB PAYS RELATIVES OF 60 DECEASED EMPLOYEES N215M AS DEATH BENEFITS

Published

2 days ago

November 25, 2020

Segun Lawal

The Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board, LASUBEB, has paid a total sum of N 215,132,707.78 as death benefits to the relatives of 60 of its employees who died in active service.

The Executive Chairman, LASUBEB, Mr. Wahab Alawiye-King, who disclosed this during the cheque presentation ceremony at the LASUBEB office in Maryland, added that the insurance death benefit payment covers those who died in service between the year 2019 and 2020.

While appealing to them to be prudent in the management of the payments, Alawiye-King urged the beneficiaries to be mindful of the recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics indicating that the economy of the country is sliding into recession, stressing that such vital information should guide them in making informed decisions about their investments.

In his words: “I plead with you to avoid the lottery effect. The pandemic has made people device different means of deceiving people, thereby robbing them of their hard-earned money and resources”.

Responding on behalf of the beneficiaries, Mr. Makanjuola John Olanrewaju, described the Lagos State Government as a trailblazer in lofty initiatives, saying that payment of the death benefits at this time, despite the pandemic and other competing needs of the State, speaks volumes of the government’s disposition to staff welfare.

Makanjuola also assured the State Government that the cheques received would be used for beneficial purposes by the relatives.