Gov. Rauf Aregbesola of Osun has sought for the approval of the State House of Assembly to access N2 billion from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund.
The  governor in a letter dated Oct. 23 and read by the Speaker of the assembly,Mr  Najeem Salaam, at the plenary on Tuesday in Osogbo, said the loan was meant to create employment, wealth and facilitate economic development of the state.
In the letter, Aregbesola said the Memorandum  of Understanding (MoU) that the state government signed with CBN stipulated that the resolution of the house on the said loan was required before it could be accessed.
The governor said that the loan was  in line with the six-point integral action plan of his administration, and urged the assembly to give the request quick deliberation.
“You will recall that our government has formally requested to be considered as a beneficiary of N2 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“The Scheme is meant to create employment, wealth and economic development of our dear state, which is in line with our administration’s six-point integral action plan, which is banishing hunger.
“Apart from entering into the MoU with CBN among others, the resolution of the house is also a condition to be submitted to the CBN before the fund could be accessed.
“Consequently, I wish to request for the resolution of the house to approve the participation of the State of Osun in the CBN’s N2 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund,” he said.
The speaker directed the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, as well as the  Committee on Commerce, Cooperative and Empowerment to liase with the appropriate ministries and government  to know the depth of the request before dealing with it.
Salaam said the committee should submit its findings within one week for appropriate action.
(NAN)
 

The Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal on Tuesday ruled that it would not terminate the trial of the petition filed by Senator Iyiola Omisore until the substantive matter before it has been heard.

The proceedings which witnessed legal and political theatrics took place as Senator Iyiola Omisore avoided the former Osun Governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola who entered appearance before the Tribunal in the legal team of Governor Aregbesola.

Senator Omisore entered the Tribunal venue at about 9.15 am and went to take his seat in the west wing of the court room without moving to exchange pleasantries with Prince Oyinlola who arrived earlier around 8.55 am and sat at the west wing.

Leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) including Otunba Sunday Ojo-Williams who were in court earlier went to greet the former governor with warm embrace and throwing of banters.

The ruling was sequel to the application filed by Governor Rauf Aregbesola seeking the order of the Tribunal to dismiss Omisore’s petition because the Reply to Respondent’s Reply was filed out of time and the Pre- trial session  form TF007 was filed out of time set by the Electoral Act, 2010.

Chairman of the panel, Justice Elizabeth Nkpejomi who noted that the application had to do with the jurisdiction of the Tribunal to handle the petition ruled that the rule guiding it was to save the time of the court.

According to the Tribunal, the issue of jurisdiction is fundamental but in cases where time was of the essence, the application seeking to terminate the petition and the main petition should be heard together in order to do substantial justice to all the parties.

The Tribunal chairman noted further that the respondents would not suffer any miscarriage of justice if the application was heard alongside the petition citing the case of Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria versus Nzeribe as the authority that gave basis to the decision.

Nkpejomi ruled further that “we cannot locate any injury that any of the parties would suffer if we hear the application alongside the petition. Election petitions are sui generis in nature where time is of the essence”.

The Tribunal moved quickly to the Pre trial Conference (PTC) immediately after the ruling where parties agreed to file issues distilled for determination on Wednesday while further proceedings in the petition was adjourned till Thursday.

Chief Akin Olujinmi (SAN), leading counsel to Governor Aregbesola, Mr. Kemi Pinheiro (SAN) and Ayotunde Ogunleye for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had opposed the application by Chief Chris Uche (SAN), the leading counsel to Omisore seeking the order of the Tribunal to limit the time of cross-examination of witnesses to five minutes each.

The two silks had rather sought a minimum of twenty minutes for general witnesses and 30 minutes for expert and star witnesses as opposed to the five minutes requested by Uche.

The counsel agreed on the documents to be tendered with consent while those that would be disputed were also to be listed alongside the processes to be filed before the Tribunal.

Olujinmi had noted that if the Tribunal were to follow Uche’s proposal of five minutes cross-examination for witnesses, not more than one question would be asked from every witness before the time allocated would lapse.

The SAN also noted that members of the Tribunal were writing with long hands and were not using verbatim reporting to take records of the proceedings which would not serve the end of justice.

Pinheiro who aligned with Olujinmi’s argument promised to streamline the number of witnesses to be called by the All Progressives Congress (APC) only after Omisore and PDP had closed their cases.

The silk maintained that the court had no discretion in the application of the rule insisting that “we have unequivocally asserted that we are not consenting to any document. Let the record of the court show that. We have given a record of the documents we will be disputing. We may streamline our witnesses after the closure of the petitioners’ cases”.

According to him, the APC had frontloaded 605 witnesses but would only streamline them after Omisore and PDP had closed their cases before the Tribunal.

He opposed the application by Uche that the first and second respondents be merged into an allocated period of ten days to call their witnesses since they were similar parties.

Pinheiro observed that his client was sued and joined in the petition adding that he was not ready to sleep on any of his rights allowed by the law in the name of trying to save time.

His words: “We have frontloaded 605 witnesses and have given notice that we will call additional witnesses. We want to claim our entire ten days having been sued and joined in this petition. We do not want to be subsumed in any other party’s ten days. Your lordships have no discretion on this matter”.

The SAN then called the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that expert witnesses would be appearing before the Tribunal including ordinary witnesses who would need the services of an interpreter pleading that time must be relaxed for their cross-examination so as not to occasion any miscarriage of justice.

Time, he noted further, “must be relaxed for the cross-examination of expert witnesses. The same should apply to interpreters. My lords, aside from the fact that you are recording long hand, we may be using an interpreter. The request for five minutes per witness may injure our ability to effectively cross-examine any of the witnesses where an interpreter is being utilized”.

The same arguments were pursued by counsel to INEC who also requested for a minimum of 30 minutes for each of the expert witnesses to be called to give evidence before the Tribunal.

Justice Nkpejomi then adjourned the petition to Thursday to give ruling on the various contentions raised during the Pre-Trial Conference.

 It is inconceivable that an expert witness will be examined for five minutes. We will be objecting to the competency of the entire petition

Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun state has further pledged his commitment to accord women a pride of place in his administration.
Speaking while receiving stakeholders of Women’s Governance Accountability Platform (WGAP) and representative of United Nations Entity for Gender Equality led by Dr. (Mrs) Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi in his office, Aregbesola said his experience with women in service shows that women are veritable tools for the development of the nation.
According to him, Womens’ ability to respond appropriately to issues at the nick of time is outstanding and indeed a necessary tool to participate in politics.
He affirmed that his government is gender friendly and faithful to the 35% affirmative of Women in Politics, adding that he would enforce it when constituting his cabinet after his November 27 inauguration for a second term in office.
The Governor admired the determination of women who despite militarisation of electoral process, intimidation, threats of violence brutalization, and oppression to scare potential electorates voted for him on August 9, 2014.
Earlier, the President, WGAP, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi informed the governor of the commitment of her NGO to the affirmation of the 35% affirmative of women in politics through sensitization, mobilization and financial commitments where required.
LEADERSHIP

DEPUTY governor of Osun State, Mrs Titi Laoye Tomori, has described basic education as a critical stage in the overall educational development of Nigeria.
She made this statement in Osogbo, during a courtesy visit by Dr Tunde Adekola, a representative of the World Bank.
She disclosed that the Osun Elementary School Feeding and Health Programme (O’MEALS) were designed to prepare pupils in elementary schools for mental and physical alertness. This, according to her, would enable them to compete favourably anywhere in the world.
Tomori informed the World Bank representative that appropriate actions and plans had already been put in place to ensure pupils in the basic education stage received instructions in Yoruba Language, for the purpose of understanding and easy assimilation.
The deputy governor, who doubles as the state’s Commissioner for Education, emphasised the commitment of her administration to the development, advancement and re-positioning of the education sector for the benefit and overall interest of the state.
Tomori admitted that the collaboration with the World Bank would facilitate the noble objective of the government at both basic and post basic sectors.
In his address, Dr Tunde Adekola  congratulated Governor Rauf Aregbesola  on his re-election for a second term in office, just as he informed the deputy governor that the bank would support basic education in Osun, through the  provision of  financial intervention to the government, in the area of training, re-training and re-orientation of teachers, provision of ICT to schools and educational instructional materials  executed in the cases of Ekiti and Lagos states, respectively.
TRIBUNE

The Osun State Election Petition Tribunal could not sit yesterday as one of its members fell ill.
The attorneys were already seated when the court clerk announced that the tribunal would no longer sit as a member of the panel was ill.
The tribunal, at its last sitting, had fixed yesterday to rule on an application by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore.
But the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Governor Rauf Aregbesola, argued that the objection must be heard at the pre-hearing stage in accordance with the law.
Aregbesola’s counsel Akin Olujinmi (SAN) said yesterday that the petition against the August 9 governorship election would not scale through the pre-hearing stage if the preliminary objections were taken.
He was reacting to the comment of the PDP’s deputy governorship candidate, Adejare Bello, who said his party would go as far as the Supreme Court.
In an interview with reporters, Bello said it was only the Supreme Court that had the final say on whether or not Aregbesola won the election.
Olunjinmi said Bello’s comment has shown that the petitioners knew the weakness of their petition.
He said: “Saying that they want to go to Supreme Court shows that they know the weakness of their case, because I expect them to say at the beginning that they are very sure of their case.
“That would be decided at the hearing, if we go to hearing, because if the objections are taken, I do not see the petition seeing the light of the day and that is why they are afraid of having the objections taken now.”
THE NATION

Photos of the First Lady State of Osun, Alhaja Sherifat Aregbesola, Governor Rauf Aregbesola, Former Governor State of Osun, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Speaker, Federal House of Representative, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, and others during the Victory Colloquium for Aregbesola, at Eko Hotel Lagos State on Sunday 2/11/2014.

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; his wife,
Sherifat (right); Speaker, Federal House of Representative , Hon.
Aminu Tambuwal (left) and All
Progressive Congress (APC) Chieftain, Alhaji Kawu Baraje (2nd left), during
the Victory Colloquium for Aregbesola at Eko Hotel Lagos State
on Sunday 2/11/2014.

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; his wife; Sherifat
(right); Former Governor State of Osun, Prince Olagunsoye
Oyinlola(left) and Publisher/Editor-in-Chief The Gazelle news Online,
Mr. Musbau
Rasaq (behind), during the Victory Colloquium for Aregbesola, at Eko
Hotel Lagos State on Sunday 2/11/2014.

From right –* First Lady State of Osun, Alhaja Sherifat Aregbesola,
Governor Rauf Aregbesola, Former Governor State of Osun, Prince
Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Speaker, Federal House of Representative, Hon.
Aminu Tambuwal, during the Victory Colloquium for Aregbesola, at Eko
Hotel Lagos State on Sunday 2/11/2014.

From right – *All Progressive Congress (APC) Chieftain, Alhaji Kawu
Baraje, Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; his wife,
Sherifat and Representative of Senator Oluremi Tinubu, Alhaja Rashidat
Are, during the Victory Colloquium for Aregbesola, at Eko Hotel Lagos State on Sunday 2/11/2014.

From right -* Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Former
Governor State of Osun, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Speaker,
Federal House of Representative, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, during the
Victory Colloquium for Aregbesola, at Eko
Hotel Lagos State on Sunday 2/11/2014.

OSUN State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has called on the people of Burkina Faso not to allow military rule after the exit of Blaise Compaore.
Aregbesola charged the Burkinabes to carry the revolution that ousted Compaore to its logical conclusion by forming a national government that will conduct election in the shortest time possible.
This was even as the Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, called on all stakeholders in the Nigerian project to get their acts together and ensure that a good leader is elected for the country in 2015.
Aregbesola who spoke at a Victory Colloquium at the Eko Hotel, Lagos, said the Burkina Faso situation was a signal to Nigerians to gird their loins and prepare for the February 2015 general elections.
He said the organisation of elections will not come easy as the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, will want to use force it could muster to stay in power.
While decrying the militarisation of election and Federal Government’s lawlessness and impunity against political opposition in Nigeria, Aregbesola warned political office holders to comport themselves to civil rule so as not to give the military any excuse to take power as it is no longer fashionable for military coup in Africa.
VANGUARD

An ambitious project, which is set to change the face of new town concept in the country, has been flagged off by the Government of the State of Osun. The project, christened, Oranmiyan New Town, is coming after a long wait for a more conducive livable town in the state.
The scheme, measuring about 2,572 hectares of land, about 6340 acres, was first acquired by Chief Obafemi Awolowo as the Premier of the old Western Region in between 1962 and 1966 for the purpose of banishing hunger and poverty and unemployment among the people.
Promoted by the Ministry of the Lands, Physical Planning and Urban Development with support of an inter-ministerial committee, the new town is expected to have over 3,000 residential plots of varying densities, with the smallest plot being in the region of 1,000 square metres. It is also expected to cater for an estimated population of over 80,000 people. Amongst proposed basic infrastructural facilities, utilities and services within are road networks, uninterrupted electricity, water reticulation, drainage system, sewage system and other communal facilities.
Under the new town scheme, a comprehensive development plan has been mapped, which will comprise seven neighborhoods, each accommodating private estate developments, commercial shops, strip malls, community centres, recreational facilities, police posts, and health centres; The recreational area will also have tennis and squash courts, 18-Hole Golf Course and Polo Ground.
The site was formerly being used for farming purpose until after the creation of State from the erstwhile Oyo State resulting to the mass movement of people into the State from neighbouring States apart from the civil servant who were to relocate compulsorily. “This scenario eventually led to shortage of housing accommodation for people hence the inauguration of an inter-ministerial Committee to work out a modality for the utilization of the hitherto “Osun Farm Settlement” for its highest and best use the committee thereafter came out with their recommendation that the large parcel of land should be converted into a Government Reservation Area, change of use of which came into effect since 1994 and tagged Osun GRA, Gbongan Road.”
Speaking at the flagging off ceremony of the project, Governor Rauf Aregbesola said: “On assumption of office, the Ministry saddled with the responsibility of managing Government land in the State deemed it fit to re-develop the remaining parcel of land within the GRA measuring up to 1,200 hectares into a new town that shall be a model that other neighbouring State will learn from.”
He recalled that as a result of lack of proper urban physical planning, which the State experienced in the past during which people carried out physical development as they wished with attendant problem of perennial flooding, intra-city traffic and transportation problems unkempt environment leading to health hazard, it takes courage for one to break this jinx through the introduction of pragmatic and practical urban development control.
His words: “Osun is an urbanized State. Hardly can one travels in the State for a distance of ten kilometres without passing through a community. Apart from this, the rate of influx of people from rural to urban area, a process called urbanization is alarming and leading to development of shanty towns, ghettos and urban decay (slums) and sprawls.”
According to the governor, developing new towns is a common phenomenon all over the world. The purpose of developing a new town is basically to create an environment that is aesthetically pleasing for living, working and recreating. More often than not, a new town can serve as a satellite town to an existing urban centre that has more or less reached its optimum level of growth so as to give room for its upgrading and partial re-development.
Governor Aregbesola pointed out that “when fully developed, the New Town will serve as a growth pole to the area surrounding it. There is no doubting the fact that this new town scheme shall add another feather to the cap of this state, which is already known for being the first in a lot of programmes that are meant for bettering the lots of the citizenry. As already, this State is the only one that had prepared Structural Plans for nine of her major cities throughout the country; it is also only the State of Osun where Urban Renewal programs had commenced in nine cities at the same time! With all these developmental programs, the State is expected to stretch her neck higher and above those of her contemporaries in the nearest future.”
The State’s Commissioner for Lands, Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Olumuyiwa Ige, explained that the basic concept of developing a new town is to provide a balanced and self-contained community as far as possible in term of the provisions of infrastructure and community facilities.
He explained that it is with a view to achieving the concept that Oranmiyan New Town was designed to comprise seven neighbourhoods to accommodate housing of different densities (Low, medium and High); commercial service; industrial and public cum semi-public uses; supported by essential infrastructure and community facilities; such as police posts, community centres, elementary, middle and high schools, places of worship, neighbourhood parks, health and centres, amongst others.
He said that an Inter-Ministerial Committee by Government met severally and came up with a recommendation that the hitherto Osun Farm Settlement should be converted and used as a Government Reservation Area called Osun GRA, Gbongan Road. “Before now the GRA had been broken into phases and developed in peace meals.”The remaining portion of the land had been comprehensively designed for development of a New Town-Oranmiyan New Town for the purpose of creating an urban environment that reflects the unique local flavours of its landscapes and cultural settings, while at the same line aspiring for universal qualities of accessibility, livability, safety and modernity,” he said.
Ige, an architect, disclosed that “Oranmiyan New Town has three major categories of roads: The Main Boulevard that collects the New Town to the External Osogbo-Gbongan Road from the Nigerian Police Zone II Headquarters’ end. The road has a right of way of 42metres broken into the dual carriage ways, median strip, drain and utility lane.
“Oranmiyan New Town boasts of botanical garden, commercial strips of plots along major roads, serviced plots, a Down Town/Central Business District (CBD) with varying land uses (religions, educational, commercial, institutional and light industrial outfits. In addition, three Arms Zone has been created to accommodate and incorporation the House of Assembly (Legislature); Proposed High Court and Judiciary Quarters (Judiciary) and the Governor’s Office (Executive), in addition to the proposed New Government House.”
Owning a parcel of land within the scheme also varies depending on the category and size of plot desired.
For instance, potential investors in the residential plots are required to obtain an application form for making a premium deposit of N60, 000.
A premium of N1, 000 per square metre (m2 ), and development levy of N2, 000/m2 , is applicable as payment. Other incidental expenses, such as survey fee, deed preparation fee, deed registration fee and annual ground rent of N15/m2 are applicable. For commercial / industrial plots, the same process applies, but with a higher premium of N1, 500/m2.
DAILY INDEPENDENT

THE Justice Research Centre (JRC) in Benin, Edo State, has hailed the conduct of the August 9, 2014, governorship election in Osun State, describing it as a reflection of the will of the people of the state.
The JRC also added that the outcome of the election has helped the process of institutionalising the sanctity of the electoral ballot in the country.
The statement signed by the chairman of the centre, Inwalomhe Donald, noted that “unlike Nigeria ’s previous elections, particularly the pre-2011 elections where dead voters and votes held sway, the Osun election voters and votes were not robotically created.
TRIBUNE

The Chairman, Osogbo branch, Nigerian Society of Engineers, Mr. Adeniran Ibitoye, has commended Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, for his administration’s efforts on urban renewal and the creation of the Oranmiyan New Town.
He made the commendation in an interview with our correspondent in Osogbo during the inaugural meeting of the new executive council.
The chairman, who said that the society was able to mobilise more members to attend the meeting, added that the new leadership of the NSE had secured and furnished office accommodation for members of the council.
Ibitoye said, “Osogbo is now more populated with the influx of people since the inception of the present administration, hence the need for expansion and more decent accommodation to create a healthy environmental, which will help the citizens to have a better living.
“Because of the present government’s focus on giving more dividends of democracy to the people of the state, there is a need to yield to the pressure from people in the area of urban renewal and infrastructural development.
“The new town is a laudable project. It will create more decent accommodation for the people and it will surely increase the population of the state.”
The NSE chairman said Aregbesola had patronised indigenous contractors in projects embarked upon by his administration, but appealed to the governor to make use of them more.
The governor had said during its inauguration that the Oranmiyan New Town, which will have over 3,000 residential plots, was also borne out of an overriding public need to ease the pressure of accommodation on Osogbo as the state capital.
OSUN DEFENDER