A total of 38 out of 39 cabinet nominees submitted by Governor Rauf Aregbesola has been confirmed by the Osun House of Assembly on Monday.
 

 
The only unconfirmed nominee Tejumola Adeola, failed to appear before the assembly for screening.
The nominees were confirmed following a motion moved by the Majority Leader, Timothy Owoeye, and seconded by the Minority Leader, Akinwale Akinwole.
The Speaker of the assembly, Najeem Salaam who charged the nominees to humility, service, innovation with fresh ideas and an open-door policy, directed the governor to proceed with the swearing-in of the nominees, having found them worthy of confirmation.
Rt Hon. Salaam, who noted that the monthly allocation from the Federation Account could no longer sustain the state, urged the nominees to assist government in improving its Internally Generated Revenue.
Governor Aregbesola had on April 11 forwarded his list of nominees to the assembly for screening and confirmation.

A consultant pathologist at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, Dr. Olufemi Solaja, who carried out an autopsy on the body of the late Senator Isiaka Adeleke, has said the politician did not die as a result of poison.
 

 
Solaja, who was led in evidence by the counsel for the hospital, Mrs. Oyindamola Daramola, said this while testifying before the coroner probing Adeleke’s death, Mr. Olusegun Ayilara.

He told the coroner that his impression was that Adeleke died due to aspiration of gastric content and multiple drugs overdose.
He said the family of the deceased presented  a man whose name he did not know and who gave him the history of what happened before Adeleke died.
The pathologist said the man told him that Adeleke complained of pain in the knees and inability to sleep and he was said to have been given some drugs, adding that the drugs were administered on him intravenously.
The pathologist said the man told him that Adeleke was given 500ml of intravenously fluid; 40ml of diazepam (Valium) 200ml of hydrocortisone; 1,000ml of analgin, gentamicin and 30mg of pentazocine.
He quoted the man as saying that he noticed that the senator was not breathing again after the drugs were administered on him.
After this, he told the coroner that the man said the deceased was rushed to Biket Hospital, Osogbo where he was confirmed dead and from where he was referred to LAUTECH Teaching Hospital for autopsy.
The pathologist said all the drugs could cause depression of the central nervous system, drowsiness, respiratory depression, nausea and vomiting if given in excess dosage while analgin could also cause these effects and cardiovascular collapse and the patient might faint.
He said the corpse was reeking of alcohol but no external injuries were found on his body during the physical examination.
Solaja added that the right lung of the late senator weighed 500 grammes while the left one weighed 450 which he described as normal.
He, however, said that his heart was enlarged and weighed 600 grammes, which according to him, is two times the size of the heart of a normal male person of the deceased’s age.
He said, “Death in this case was due to aspiration of gastric content, although the deceased had hypertensive heart disease which could have caused sudden death, but no evidence of such, either grossly or microscopically.
“It is known that excessive alcoholic intake may depress the central nervous system with the blunting of the gas influx. This may also induce vomiting. The deceased was deeply sedated and was given an overdose of analgesic, these drugs are known to cause central nervous system depression.
“He apparently vomited and aspirated due to the deep sedation, so the aspiration of the gastric content blocked the airways, depriving the body of oxygen. This showed up in the body as stinge of colouration. This could cause vital seizure of the system.
“The toxicology report also showed abnormally high levels of alcohol, sedative and analgesic in the blood of the deceased. There were no traces of poison, or heavy metals in the toxicology report. The Nigerian police did the toxicology examination and the result was given to me on May 15, 2017.”
The pathologist tendered the autopsy report and it was admitted as one of the exhibits by the coroner.
He said, “I rule out poison as the cause of the death because of the toxicology report.”
The Divisional Police Officer of Dugbe Police Station, Mr. Gbemileke Ogunkanmi, told the coroner that the empty ampoules of the injections given the deceased were given to him and he handed them over to the Officer-in-Charge of Homicide.
He said the nurse who allegedly administered the injections was transferred to the State’s Criminal Investigation Department for investigation. He said he was present when the autopsy was done.
The O/C Homicide, Mr. Moses Eletan, confirmed  that the DPO handed over the polythene bags containing empty ampoules of drugs the deceased was said to have been given to him.
He added that the empty ampoules were handed over to the police toxicologist, Mr. Benedict Agbo, who did the toxicology examination.
The nurse, Mr. Alfred Aderibigbe, who allegedly administered the overdose of  injections on the deceased at home shortly before his death, could not testify before the coroner.
Counsel for the nurse, Mr. Lekan Alabi, said his client needed an interpreter due to his inability to speak English language fluently.
The nurse was in court  and on entering the witness box, he started shaking his head apparently in regret but the coroner, who noticed this, told him to relax.
The coroner told him, “I know you are traumatised, you don’t need it. Relax, this is not a criminal court.”
But his counsel told the court that Aderibigbe would require an interpreter before he could testify.
The coroner adjourned till Thursday for Aderibigbe’s evidence.
Meanwhile, the family of the deceased has threatened to sue the Chief Medical Director of LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Prof. Akeem Lasisi, and other medical practitioners for the alleged unprofessional manner they handled the report of the autopsy it ordered them to do.
The deceased’s siblings led by Dr. Adedeji Adeleke, said this at a press conference in Ede on Wednesday while reacting to the testimony of the CMD, who appeared before the coroner on Monday.
He said the family neither participated nor believed in the “kangaroo inquest” ordered by Governor Rauf Aregbesola, saying the CMD refused to give the family the result of the autopsy carried out on the deceased despite that it was ready since May 5th.
Adedeji said the CMD relied on hearsay and told the coroner the deceased was given an overdose of banned substance but did not tell the coroner that the autopsy report was ready.
“…The Adeleke family hereby puts it on record, that based on the high level of unprofessional conduct already displayed by CMD of LAUTECH, the integrity of the ‘yet to be ready’ autopsy must have been seriously compromised.
“The Adeleke family is consulting lawyers and is considering all legal options available to address this unfortunate and unprofessional conduct exhibited by the medical practitioners in this matter.”

The Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has charged the Community Development Council on development, peace and security in the conduct of the forth coming CDC election.

 
He gave the charge while sensitising the members of the CDC in the State on the election.
The Governor, who was represented at the tour by the Senior Special Assistant on Rural and Community Affairs, Hon. Moshood Titilola, explained that for a Development Association to be recognized, it must at least have a minimum of 80 households and maximum of 200 households.
The State of Osun Community Development Council (CDC) has been able to perform through the collaborative efforts of the Donors from home and abroad and Federal, State and Local Governments. Therefore the communities need to embrace peace and tranquility in the forth coming Community Development Council (CDC) elections.
These were the submissions of the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Rural and Community Affairs, Hon. Moshood Olusegun Titilola during the Community Development Council (CDC) Sensitization Programme embarked upon for the coming CDC elections across the State of Osun.
He also used the occasion to congratulate the newly appointed Executive Secretaries and their cabinet members at Ife North LCDA – Oke-Dio, Ile-Ife, Ife Central Local Government, Ile-Ife, Ayedaade Local Government,  Gbongan and Ayedaade LCDA Orile-Owu saying that it is their onerous duty  to work hand in hand with the communities and their CDC executives.
According to Hon Moshood Titilola, the present administration focuses attention on rural area developmental projects because he has the belief that the communities are the grassrooters adding that more Community Development Associations are still needed for equal distribution of the dividends of democracy.
While soliciting support for the present administration in the State, he enjoined all Community Development Associations to cooperate with the new executive members, embrace peace and progress so as to have a free and fair elections.
The new Executive Secretaries of the Councils visited include:  Ife North LCDA – Oke-Dio, Ile-Ife, Hon. Dickson Amala, Ife Central Local Government, Ile-Ife, Hon. Barrister Olaposi Omisakin, Ayedaade Local Government, Gbongan, Alhaji Hon. Abdul-Bashir Oduwole and Hon. Sola Ogunfolajin, Ayedaade LCDA Orile-Owu.
Other Local Governments visited were Atakunmonsa East where Hon. Adebangbe Omole received the team. Atakunmonsa East, Ilesa West and Ilesa East where the Executive Secretaries  Prince Femi Kujebola, Hon Titi Adeoye and Barrister Femi Onigbogi respectively played host to the team.

The coroner inquest set up by Osun government to investigate the likely cause of Senator Isiaka Adeleke’s death on Tuesday threatened to issue warrant of arrest against the police officer in charge of Homicide and a Divisional Police Officer (DPO) if they fail to appear before on Wednesday.
 


 
The Chief Magistrate, Olusegun Ayilara, who made the threat during the ongoing proceeding at the state High Court, Osogbo, also summoned the state commissioner of police and the pathologist that carried out the postmortem examination on the late senator.
The Chief Medical Director of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, Prof. Akeem Lasisi, on Monday testified before the panel that the pathologist that carried out the postmortem, Dr. Solaja, was the only person that could give detail of the result.
Prof. Lasisi further testified that the O/C Homicide and the DPO Dugbe Police Station were inside the mortuary with the pathologist when the sample for the postmortem was taken.

He also disclosed that overdose of some drugs administered on the late senator was another likely cause of his death.
He said, “When Adeleke’s corpse was brought to the hospital, his medical history revealed that one person that was neither a doctor nor a nurse injected him with some medicines when he complained of leg pain earlier before he died.”
Lasisi said the injection included five percent of dextrose, intravenous fluid glory set, scalp vein needle, two ampoules of Analgin, four ampoules of 10ml Diazepam, one ampoule of Pentasozine, one ampoule of Getamacine and Valium.
He maintained that the drugs were given in excess dosage and could cause reflex collapse and blockage of respiratory system.
He added: “As a medical doctor of 27 years experience, I have never given 40ml of diazepam to any patient and Analgin is also an outlawed drug, I wonder where the so called person got that from.”

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.