The Osun Deputy Governor, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori,  on Monday appeared before the coroner  panel set up by Governor Rauf Aregbesola, to probe the death of Senator Isiaka Adeleke.
 

 

Laoye-Tomori, who arrived the courtroom at around 10:35a.m., said she waived her immunity to appear before the coroner to give evidence because of the importance of the probe.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a coroner’s inquest is an inquiry into the manner and cause of an individual’s death, conducted by a coroner or deputy coroner with a court reporter and six jurors present.
The jurors are citizens of the county in which the death took place.
NAN also reports that former Gov.Babtunde Fashola of Lagos set up a coroner’s inquest to unravel the causes of death of more than 100 people during the Dana air crash that happened on June3, 2012 in Iju area of the state.
Deputy Gov. Laoye-Tomori and the late Adeleke were said to have sat side by side each other at the burial of the grandmother of Mr Amobi Akintola , the APC Senatorial Chairman in Osun West Senatorial District  on April 22.
She tendered her manifest for April 22 as an exhibit before the coroner chairman, Mr Olusegun  Ayilara.
Laoye-Tomori told the coroner that she decided to sit beside Adeleke  at the event because of the humility exhibited by him by receiving her when she alighted from her car.
She said the man who initially sat next to the late Adeleke vacated his seat for her.
Meanwhile, the chairman of APC in Osun West Senatorial District, Mr Amobi Akintola, told the panel that late Adeleke did not eat any food at the burial of his grandmother on April 22.
Akintola said this while giving evidence before the coroner.
He said the late senator attended the burial ceremony in company with about 30 political aides and allies.
Akintola said that those who came with Adeleke ate but he (Adeleke) did not eat any of the foods served there.
He told the coroner that he served Adelekea bottle of Remmy Martins, an alcoholic wine, but the senator brought his own bottle of Remmy Martins from his vehicle which he and his friends drank.
Also, Dr Adebisi Adenle, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Biket Hospital, Osogbo, also said that Adeleke was brought to his hospital dead on April 23.
Adenle said that Adeleke was brought to his hospital around 10:15a.m., and he pronounced him dead.
He told the coroner that he asked the family to take the corpse to the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Teaching Hospital morgue because his hospital did not have a mortuary.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Gov. Aregbesola, had on May 2, signed an executive order setting up a coroner inquest into the sudden death of Adeleke.
Adeleke, 62, who died on April 23, was representing Osun West Senatorial District at the Senate under the platform of All Progressive Congress (APC).
Adeleke was also the first civilian governor of Osun between January 1992 and November 1993 on the platform of defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP).
Meanwhile, the Adeleke family had said that none of them would appear before the coroner panel to testify.
Mr Deji Adeleke, the immediate younger brother of the deceased, said this at a news conference on May 7, in Ede, the Adeleke’s hometown.
He alleged that the outcome of the inquest had been predetermined.

Chief Medical Director (CMD), Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital (LAUTECH), Osogbo, Professor Akeem Ola Wale Lasisi yesterday cleared the air on a possible cause of death of the first civilian governor of Osun state, Senator Isiaka Adeleke. Lasisi said the senator’s death may have been caused by an alleged excessive dose from ‘dextrose intravenous fluid glory set, scalp vein niddle,2 ampoules of analgin, 4 ampoules of 10 mg of diazepam,1 ampoule of pentasozine,1 ampoule of getamacine and valium’ administered on the late Adeleke.

 
 

 
The LAUTECH CMD said this yesterday before a coroner court set up by the Aregbesola-led administration to unravel how the senator died on April 23. Until his death, Adeleke was a senator representing the state in the National Assembly. In his evidence-in-chief, Lasisi said Adeleke died of excessive injection administered on him following his brief illness.
According to him, the injection given to him which included 5 per cent of dextrose intravenous fluid glory set,scalp vein niddle,2 ampoules of analgin,4 ampoules of 10 mg of diazepam,1 ampoule of pentasozine,1 ampoule of getamacine and valium allegedly killed the senator on April 23.
He said: “The drugs were given in excess dosage and could cause reflex collapse and blockage of respiratory system.

“As a medical doctor of 27 years post qualification I have never given 40 grams of diazepam. Analgin is also an outlawed drug. I wonder where the so- called person got that from. “In fact, when Adeleke’s corpse was brought to the hospital, I asked for his medical history and was told one person that was neither a doctor nor a nurse injected him with some medicines when he complained of leg pain earlier before his death.”

Meanwhile, the coroner court has threatened to issue a bench warrant against the Divisional Police Officer of Dugbe Police station, Osogbo and the OC Homicide for their alleged refusal to honour its invitation.
The coroner’s head, Chief Magistrate Olusegun Ayilara frowned at the non-appearance of the police despite the invitation sent to it.
He said: “The OC homicide and the DPO are expected tomorrow. They need to come and I want to say this that nobody is on trial here. This is not a criminal proceeding. I am not going to stop anybody from going back to his or her house and I won’t force anybody to say what he doesn’t want to say.

The Osun  Deputy Governor, Mrs. Titi Laoye-Tomori, is currently giving evidence before the coroner ordered by Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to probe the death of Senator Isiaka Adeleke.

The deputy governor, who entered the courtroom at around 10:35, said she waived her immunity to appear personally before the coroner because of the importance of the probe.

The deputy governor and the late Adeleke were together at the burial ceremony of the grandmother of the APC Senatorial Chairman in Osun West Senatorial District, Mr. Amobi Akintola. She tendered her manifest for April 22 as an exhibit before the coroner, Mr. Olusegun Ayilara.

She told the coroner that she decided to sit beside Adeleke because of the humility exhibited by him by receiving her by the side of her vehicle.

She said the man was sat next to Adeleke vacated his seat for her and she took his seat and shunned the seat prepared for her.

In its bid to restore sanity to the education system and enhance teaching and learning process in all the public schools across the state, the Government of the State of Osun is set to deploy 600 Education Marshals to all public schools in the state.
 

 
The scheme, when fully constituted, will help curb all forms of indiscipline and moral decadence among pupils and staff of public schools.
The Bureau of Communication and Strategy in the office of the governor, in a statement on Monday, quoted the Executive Chairman, Osun Education Quality Assurance and Morality Enforcement Agency, Dr. Isiaka Owoade  as saying that the state would launch the discipline team as part of efforts to eliminate the human factors that always hamper the smooth process of teaching and learning in the schools.
The statement signed by the Director of the Bureau, Semiu Okanlawon, quoted Owoade as stating the decision was taken to ensure quality assurance for all in education system so as to complement the huge investment made by the state in education sector.
Owoade, who identified gross indiscipline, moral decadence and nonchalant attitude among students and teachers as factors militating against educational growth and development, said no effort would be spared to achieve high sense of discipline and bring out the best in every pupil and student of public schools in the state.
He attributed an act of indiscipline between and among staff, pupils and students as one major factor that has been proven to affect educational outcomes negatively in the state.
According to him, it is crystal clear that the present administration in the state has invested huge sums of money in education infrastructure, teacher recruitment and training.
“But one major factor that has been proven to affect educational outcomes negatively is indiscipline among both the staff and students.
“So, it is however very important that the human factors that affect learning and teaching be attended to in order for the investment in education to yield positive results.
“In order to accomplish this, our agency which is being saddled with the task of ensuring that the teachers perform maximally and that the standard of teaching is high, resolved to take this decisive action to return our schools to path of greatness.
“We have a core of trained Education Quality Assurance officers that will see to it that the students imbibe the right kind of attitude to maximise educational accomplishment”, he stressed.
The Chairman of the agency said the Marshals will be organised as foot patrol teams to monitor the streets to discourage truancy, loitering and other forms of anti-social behaviours by public school students when they are supposed to be in their schools.
“The Marshals will follow up on any accosted pupils to his/her homes and/or schools. The Marshals will also patrol individual schools to assess and report on the disciplinary tone of the environment.
“Points to monitor and report on in schools include unattended classrooms, students loitering and whether meaningful teaching and learning is taking place.
“The overall objective of the scheme is to help government and the school authorities maintain discipline and enhance teaching and learning,” he added.
Owoade disclosed that the Marshals would be trained with relevant sections of The Child Rights Act; basic children psychology (how to deal with difficult children), various manifestation of indiscipline, ethical issues in dealing with children as well as how to relate with the other law enforcement agencies.
 

Imagine a modern space equipped with all modern tools to professionally and adequately diagnose your vehicles problems as well as produce professional vehicle technicians equipped with the best and most modern of tools right here in Nigeria? Well, this feat has been achieved in Osun where Nigeria’s only world class mechatronics institutes is located.
 

 
 
The Bola Ige Mechatronics Institute, BIMI, is one of Africa’s best mechatronics school, with none of its kind in Nigeria or sub-Saharan Africa for that matter.
 
According to the manager, Mr. Folosho Awogbami, BIMI is an intelligent auto-training institute established in honour of the late Chief Ajibola Idowu Adegoke Ige at Esa Oke, State of Osun.
 
The institute provides expert training for developing private sector competence in auto diagnostics and repair, facilitate a modern hi-tech environment to train the trainers, provide theoretical and practical setting for retaining local auto mechanics and serves as a test bed for raising auto remediation entrepreneurs.

 
Bola Ige Mechatronics Institute programmes covers every aspect of automobile technology which include the Powertrain engine (emission and ignition), and transmission, Body (immobilizer and intrusion controls; Steering electrics; supplementary restraint system; instrument cluster; HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air-conditioning), and climate control), Chassis (suspension electrics, ABS and break electrics) and Communication (CAN [Control Area Network], LIN (Local Interconnect Network), MOST (Media-Oriented System Transport), FlexRay and other vehicle inter-connecting networks).
 
Recall over 30 Osun indigenes were sent to Germany for a 2-month intensive training in May of 2014 by the Rauf Aregbesola led administration in the state.  Subsequently, the government of Osun in partnership with a foreign agency and support from the National Automotive Council established the multimillion naira mechatronics institute.
 
Awogbami further noted that the institute was built with the best of equipment and software imported from Germany with continuous partnership to ensure time to time update.
 
“Our training facilities are interactive with our dynamic multimedia learning aid and real live components. All our Instructors are German-trained and well able to deliver the knowledge to the understanding of any categories of trainee irrespective of the literacy level.” Awogbami stated.

 
The institute has three computerised mechanical workshops for assembling and repair of various types of automobiles.

The Osun governor, Ogbeni Aregbesola, has challenged the claim that the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Osun state is currently in disarray over who will succeed him in 2018.
 
 
 
He said APC is strongly rooted in the grassroots across in the state and there is no disagreement among the party members. Reports have it that Aregbesola said there is no any form of disaffection among the members and loyalists of the party.

The Omoluabi Mortage Bank Pls in its bid to give the business a national outlook is transforming to a National Mortgage Bank. This transformation will need a fundraising to further solidify the bank while a consortium of Investment Banks led by MorganCapital Group has been appointed to handle the process.
 

 
Chairman, Omoluabi Mortgage Bank Plc, Alhaji Adebayo Jimoh dropped this hint on recently after he rang the Trade Closing Bell at the Nigerian Stock Exchange in Lagos. The Board and Management Team of the Bank were received by the Executive Director, Capital Markets of the Exchange, Haruna Jalo-Waziri to share the expansion and growth strategies of the Bank.
Omoluabi Mortgage Bank Plc. is a state primary mortgage institution formally wholly owned by the Osun State Government. The State Government divested from the Bank in 2013 same year the bank did a fundraising via initial public offer which further diluted the interest of the State in the Bank. The Bank was listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 2014 and has since been performing optimally.

“With the impending investment inflow into the mortgage sector, the bank is positioning itself to maximize such opportunity effectively. The transformation in the bank is not going unnoticed while corporate governance has improved greatly. The quality of management staff has also improved. The bank is currently one of the most liquid mortgage banks in the sector with quality risk assets”, Jimoh said.
According to him, the bank has its eyes set on becoming a National Mortgage Bank and will, therefore, undergo a fundraising activity anytime soon, with a consortium of Investment Banks led by MorganCapital Group to activate the process.
Chief Executive Officer, MorganCapital Group, Olumuyiwa Adeyemi, said the Market was excited that an Investment Bank of MorganCapital competence is involved in this transaction.
“Our Group provides a comprehensive range of investment banking and financial advisory services to private, public sector, corporate, and institutional clients, while we also focus on providing unbiased financial advisory and investment banking services to individuals and institutions that are seeking to invest in Africa or already involved in investing in Africa”, he said.

The Speaker of Osun House of Assembly, Mr Najeem Salaam has advised the Commissioner/ SA nominees to wear the robe of humility and service.
 


Salaam made the plea during the screening of the governor’s nominees for the position of Commissioners and Special Advisers at plenary in a speech he titled THIS TREND MUST BE DIFFERENT on Tuesday in Osogbo.
In his word “I am compelled to remind the nominees that are here today about what I had admonished their colleagues yesterday that, we are in a critical mode of social imbalance and tensed economic topsy-turvy, not only in the state, but also in the whole fabric of the nation; suggesting that we need radical minds who could think outside of the box to fix a critical situation like ours.
I alluded to the fact that your job is not envious, because the tea party had long gone, and once again you have my sympathy, because you will have to stretch yourself to get a desired result this time. You have to contend with civil servants who have been piloting ministries in the last two years; you will have to demonstrate capacity to your Principal, and you will have to show the people who are looking up to you the result of your resolve to get things done, all these on lean purse as result of cash-crunch resulting from economic contraction.
Besides, I urge you in your own interest to work with House of Assembly. We shall be glad to help you with the instrument of oversight, and can look into your challenges through our standing committees. We only demand the respect we deserve from you, nothing more, and it should be known to you that we are partners in progress in the development of this state.To cap it all, I advise strongly you relegate the mind of greed, wear the robe of humility and service. It is imperative to treat our people, particularly our party, its leadership and the people with utmost respect, because the time we will return to them for electoral favour is fast approaching. I pray God Almighty will support you in your endeavours”.

Our progenitor, the great Oranmiyan who has become a phenomenon in Yorubaland traversing the old Oyo empire up to the present day Ile Ife was a Prince, a King, warrior and custodian of cultural authority during his heroic days. Many centuries after he left, another symbol of peace, progress and prosperity for the Yoruba race emanated with unquenchable zeal, implosive passion and a thoroughly-defined concept for unusual governance in the state of osun, Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola appeared on the political scene. The Oranmiyan of our time.
 

 
Arguably and interestingly, ever since he assumed the position of the chief executive officer in Osun, he has come under tense and heavy criticism, largely orchestrated by the opposition . However, the radiating love between him and his people (citizens, residents and electorates) previously; recently and presently remain uncompromised and waxing stronger still and that is the fact.
 
Fundamentally, Rauf Aregbesola is a mountainous movement, better described as an unstoppable revolution. It is a promulgation of enduring legacies for today and the coming generations: these and more he professed, he has demonstrated over the years in deeds, words and actions.
 
Traveling down memory lane, just thirty two months ago, the most vindictive and politically intimidating election since the advent of the 4th republic was conducted on August 9th 2014 in the state of Osun: political scientists often refer to it as an over – militarized supervised ballot of  a little above 700,000  electorates where well above 70,000 security operatives stretching from masked DSS to army officers, mobile and regular policemen and several other paramilitary agencies terrorized and intimidate innocent and law abiding Osun electorates but the Osun people rose and stood against tiring oppression, frightening influence and terrific intimidation with the broom mentality of purposeful unity, Aregbesola won clearly .
 
His dexterity and natural instinct of participatory governance is legendary. He posits with enormous humility that he remains the only governor who can confidently boast of two large territories in different domains of Osun East senatorial district and Lagos West senatorial district where he can make himself available for an election if he so desires to run after the expiration of his tenure as governor on November 27th 2018 and that is fact.
 
Putting the issues in clear perspectives, the success story of infrastructural development under Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Lagos State between 1999 – 2007 and beyond which epitomizes symbolic revolution in massive infrastructural development, the futuristic implementable ideas of visionary designs under successive administration which have become a working template is the “large syndrome and mentality of Aregbesola” in the eyes and perspective of an average Lagosian . It cannot be waved away, it cannot be brushed aside and it is documented with indelible ink in the annals of the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure at the Centre of Excellence.
 
Till date, his unflinching loyalty, strength and noticeable discipleship to the Tinubu political dynasty makes him the delight of the politician and a force to reckon with in the political landscape of Lagos and beyond.
 
Is Aregbesola actually a large political heavyweight in Osun? How? When? Where? Well, his mode of governance is patently unusual, reversing the old trends and bringing government in its entirety and totality closer to the governed by expressly surprising the over 4million teeming populace in Osun through the constitutional and conventional roles of entrenching the depth of democratic principles with legacy projects. The visible synergy with the people is unexplainable as he remains the only African leader who has demonstrated love with the downtrodden and average citizens through “THE WALK TO LIVE” initiative, a street credibility mechanism to promote physical fitness, a precursor to stable health to disembark every bodily channel predisposition to disease. He has walked over 100Km with his people under this concept.
 
The construction of new 70 state-of-the-art educational facilities for elementary, middle and high school pupils/students, with complementary renovation of additional 1500 classrooms. Timely approval and construction of over 1000klms of rural and urban roads, our government alone has served 200,000,000 plates of nutritious meal as at December 31st 2016 with 250,000 dished out daily under the O-Meal scheme with O – REAP (Osun Rural Enterprise and agriculture programme) a platform for peasant and mechanized farmers to translate their farm produce into profits and prosperity as the bed rock.
 
Undoubtedly, chunk of our Osun success stories have now metamorphosed into a national template for implementation of the blueprint of APC Muhammadu Buhari led Federal Government. The school meal feeding programme termed O – MEAL is been test run in 16 states of the federation, O – YES (Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme) produced 40,000 jobs within 6years, reduced the statistical rate of unemployment according to the publication of the National Bureau of Statistics, even the World Bank recognized this singular effort and international awards are uncountable in this regards.
 
The highly responsive Osun Special Ambulance scheme (O – Ambulance) don’t discriminate between Fulanis, Ibibio, Efik, Igbira or Oyos when discharging effectively their statutory duties of saving accident victims and offering emergencies services to the residents of Osun , our records showed that 12,000 lives have been saved from untimely death within four years of operation. Our drive to make our state more environmentally friendly by rehabilitating mentally deranged persons combed or dumped on the streets of Osun is yielding joy for hopeless families, 160 or more of such homes are praying for the Aregbesola administration.
 
We cannot exhaust all existing channels to salute the doggedness, patience and understanding of the rank and file our entire workforce, the labour unions for standing unceremoniously with us in solidarity, our performance was slowed down due to the economic recession where funding militated against our lofty dreams to make Osun the destination of anything unique, attractive and outstanding. We are marching on.
 
The succession conspiracy theory can’t distract our government, the model of finesse for emerging and performing successors under the Tinubu dynasty is not accidental, Babatunde Raji Fasola was thrown up less than 3 months to the defunct Action Congress (AC) 2007 Governorship primaries, same applied to Akinwumi Ambode whose entry into the race was less than a year. The baton will be passed to a worthy apostle of the 6point integral action plan of Aregbesola in due course.
 
Rauf does not give in to hypocrisy or pride as erroneously analyzed in some quarters, but a firm grip of the political firmament in Osun as this was again displayed at the just concluded 7hour all night interactive session tagged Ogbeni till Daybreak where a random sampling showed residents glued to their television sets despite the leprous and epileptic power supply. The audience within and outside is explosive in numbers, the attendant unscreened and uncensored phone calls were stimulants and complementary as encomiums were showered on the Ogbeni himself, even the unregulated social media coverage showed positive feedback.
 
Conscious efforts to resuscitate the Osun economy to boost the revenue generation through the agricultural and ICT revolution is commendable, the Cocoa processing industry in Ede is back on her feet after 15years of collapse, the chocolate liquor from the firm is touching grounds in China and  Europe. Recently, the collaborative effort of the government of Osun and RLG consortium which birth RLG Adulawo Ilesa in 2013 recently harnessed a contract sum of USD31.5m to produce setup boxes for TV digitization.
 
Aregbesola is reinventing the wheels of Awo legacies, approaching the mechanism of sustainable development through agriculture, infrastructure, social intervention and education for the benefit of mankind, he is purpose driven and remarkably focused on his set goals, he cannot be distracted by rabble rousers as every available parameter by both government and private establishment clearly reveal indices, statistical figures and empirical data of progress in human capital development, poverty reduction, infrastructural development, agricultural prosperity, etc. Saboteurs of development and political scavengers should halt all moves to replace Aregbesola with retrogressive element as they are whipping a dead horse; they have lost the battle al binitio.