Osun chapter of the Nigeria Cassava Growers Association on Wednesday said it had received 1,000 packs of herbicide to boost production of cassava in the state.
The Chairman of the Association, Mr David Ogunsade, said on Wednesday in Osogbo that the release of the herbicide by the government was to facilitate cassava revolution in the country.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that each herbicide pack contains 12 bottles of 4 litres of the chemical.
According to Ogunsade, cassava farmers in Osun are already cultivating 3,000 hectares of cassava farmland out of the expected 29,000 hectares to be cultivated nationwide.
“The Federal Government through the ministry of agriculture has made the cassava farming attractive through the release of loans, grants and critical input to the states.
“Each farmer is expected to cultivate not less than two hectares of farmland to encourage mass production of improvised cassava tubers,’’ Ogunsade said.
He said that the target was for the country to have enough cassava for the production of cassava bread across the country in 2015.
“We have also been assured of 4,000 bags of fertilisers to  cassava farmers in Osun in no distant time.
“This time, the government is investing in our farms as processors are also being empowered to buy the tubers from the farmers,” Ogunsade said.
A cassava farmer, Mr Salimon Ibrahim, from Iwo Farms commended the commitment of the Federal Government to the project.
Ibrahim implored the government to equip the processors so that cassava tubers would not go bad in the farms.
Another farmer, Mr Hezekiah Esan, of Oke-Osun Farm Settlement in Osogbo also tasked the government to execute the project to a logical conclusion by creating a ready market for the cassava harvest.
(NAN)

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday listed the first company on the on Alternative Security Market (ASeM) since its restructuring in 2013. The ASem   segment  is for the listing of small and medium enterprises(SMEs) companies. A total of  five billion shares  of Omoluabi Savings and Loans Plc were listed at 55 kobo per share to become  the first firm to list its shares in the sector of the market.
Speaking after the listing, Chairman of  the company , Dr. Wale Bolorunduro said  he was appointed as the board chairman to oversee the privatisation of the bank by the Osun State government.
According to him, the bank came out in 2013 to raise N1.65 billion, issuing   three billion shares at 55 kobo each saying that this is in line with its vision to broaden its shareholder-base and get listed on NSE.
He said  the funds raised  were  used for business expand  branch network and  enhance information technology infrastructure.
He disclosed that the Omoluabi  Savings and Loans was  one of  the 33 mortgage banks that scaled the recapitalisation deadline of December 31, 2013.
“The mortgage industry is expected to experience a major boost in activity as a result of the on-going reforms of the federal government in mortage delivery services and monetisation of major personal costs. The bank is expected to witness a turnaround in its activities in the light of the prevailing environment of its catchment area of the Osun State,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of Morgan Capital Limited, the issuing house/ stockbroker to the  Omoluabi Savings issue and listing,  Mr. Ayoleke Adu, said  he was happy that his company pioneered the listing of new firms on the ASem.
He called on other market operators to support the NSE’s efforts   aimed at encouraging listing of SMEs, which are considered the engine room of any economy.
“We are happy to have achieved this listing and we will continue to encourage  the listing of SMEs so that they have access to funding and run on better corporate governance,” Adu said.
THISDAY LIVE

With the ongoing wave of transformation and reforms in the agriculture sector which has brought about empowerment for its stakeholders alongside increased food production and security, the Oyo State Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Wale Adedoyin has declared the intention of the state government to join forces with the Federal Government, in order to facilitate increased availability of agricultural infrastructure in the state.
According to the Commissioner, establishment of more facilities and infrastructure in the state has become a necessity to guarantee advancement in agricultural productivity as part of measures to ensure food security and harness the empowerment opportunities available in the sector for the benefit of the people.
Citing the various projects established in the state by the Federal Government to include cassava production, provision of storage facilities and provision of modern equipment for food processing, he however noted the need for more to be done.
Speaking on the efforts of the present state administration to unlock the potential of the sector in the state, he stated that Governor Rauf Aregbesola had approved the establishment of more farm settlements in parts of the state which would be prepared and allocated to prospective young farmers, for the production of both food crops and livestock, adding that the state government had also provided facilities in some farm settlements located in Ede, Ife and Ilesha, among others, for use by young farmers.
Elaborating further, Mr. Adedoyin explained that the farm settlements were designed to provide job opportunities for youths, as well as increase availability of food for local and external consumption, stating that the government would provide the beneficiaries with access to farming inputs, credit facilities and security for the farm.
AGRONIGERIA

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