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We'll introduce Hon. Samso n Kayode Sangolade, t.ransition committee chairman, Yewa South Local Government Area of Ogun State, in thh interview with OLAYINKA OLUKOYA, s p oke on s undry iss ues related to his local government. Excerp!":
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w nre you coping
farming to boost - Yewa!ixlthLG
with incessant .l Imed
bbery cases ill tile local go vernment? 111e len~1 of insecurity is high throughout the country. [t is n('l t peculi,H Itl Ilam alone. What actually happcnd on th 'll ftlilhful Tlmrsday. took everybody by surrrise. We h" \le security measures in place but this armed roi.' bcrs 'he way they came. they have superior firearm s a nd th?)' over powered the polil:'emen. Armed roblX'ry incident hilppcns an)'where in the coWllry. But sine!! Ih, ! incident h ap pened. II lot of secu rity measures hit\," laken p lace, personall y, Governor Ibikunlc A n 1(lSlin came to lIaro t W{l or three times since ilfler the jncide-ll to see wha t is happening. Now, you cannot enter in'o naro without bei"g properly cheded by mobile polio' men. The secu ri ty system has impro\·ed.
Mde /Tum 'I,e state gaverrunmt is there any thing thf! local go~nlmen t ;s doing to ensure security of lives md prop=1fJ' of the people? \Vhe n you are being called the d lier Security O ffirer of the stat". ttl i ' limited extent, I dl,n'tcontrol the police but a t the 1IXilIlevel, we have bl>en able to sensitize our We ha ve reached an agreement; we ~'eOple. We hr!V ~ talk to them a nd we are trying to bring back our 1()('iII '<eCurity (the Vigilante group) and they ma rkets. WIl Dt is your projection on the [ GR issue? a re will hlg tCl assist but because of the financia l O\lr projection is to readl NJm, and by the gT<lce of Impedimc nt now, they've made some request w hich we will not be ablf to meet presently but hopefully, with in God in October, we would have meet tha t target Are you swoe tha t will not bring pain on lile people? the next few we~ks, we hope to equipour vigihm te group No, the s tructures a re there. In Owode market, we with two motol cycles and a vehiclE' in each of our zones, have up to 80 shops bUlnobody was paying a pelUlY so, so thai they wi'l be ilble to help us patrol the areils. What· An! yrur p rogrammes for the agrirulture and whe n we renovated the place and they start pilying a paltry sum. But for the past one yenr, UleY refused to pay educ:afion sedc'r in Ibe Joatl goV£'lJll11eJ1f? On agricu1t1.'re, before we cam.e on board, agriculture because those shops were not renovated. If during the regime of duef Oluscgun Osoba, they is virtually dea.l in Yewa-South Local Govemment. We have a tractur which h as been aba ndoned for qu ite were generating up 10 N250, (XX) at Owode, it will be on progression. During the last 8years, it should be double sometimes. W.! also have agricultural pen which can accommodate lbou t 2000 birds, successfully,· we have but they were generating jus t N25, 000. By the time we renovate Ule place, even from Owode been able to re'"abiUtate them a nd we have stock them market alone, we can generate, up to one million naira. wil h 2000 bird !l. In our proposal .. Iso, we wa nt to go into palm tree And hy. the time we lap all the resources, we will bring farming a nd se~ li ngs to two yt!ars nursery. We can sell somethmg. Wha t .tre you d oing 10 boost tourism in the local them to boost ourintemally gene ra ted revenue. We have government? a trained hand on ground. When we talk of touris m, we don't talk of our border On educat on, you know the sludents a re ju s t TE'S uming. The goveOlor was here about four dOlYs ago relations hip with the Republic of Benin because there and he promiS''<i us some free exercise books for a start. are lots of s muggling activities going on Ulere. Prople in Though we a r~ new here, but what we p lanned is to this local govemment are know n for their cross borderassist lhe state government by providing furniture to all trnde which we in the council are trying to discourage. A ll Ihose things they bring jn, they are illegal like over the 72 sd-ools thai \~ have for a s tOlft. We wa nt to rehi'lbilitate the !lchools, th e s ta te vehicle smuggling. What we want fo r our youths is 10 govemtnent fe r now has been able to rehabili ta te four empower them. The local government has U,e highest schools bu t W I! wanl to rehabili tate il lI the schools by u ne mployable youths in the state because most o f the yout hs do no t gu to schoo!, they sta rting wit h the most dilapidated primary sch ool ones. Wild is y?u r adminis tration d oing to attract don't have certificate. When the govenunenl decla red 10,000 emplo)'ments, IHud ly ca n we have 500 you ths investor.s? TIlis IOGII guvernment is the only one thai does not . tha t will benefit from this LG because they don't even the rerliliCilte. have have a ~ingle u,dustry so in the agriculture what we have So, we wan t to embilrk on YOUUI'S e mpowennenl, we now is pea; a., t farming, bu t we wan t to in trod uce mech anized ral mingoWe howe mass land th•• t we can use. wa nt to train ~ur yout hs to be sel~ dependent. We \~ant to train them III the areas of Agnculture; snaIl rea n ng. ~V1 1I1t of odlf!1' areas too? In the areas of a Urading investors. you have to create grass cutte r breeding and SO on. We wan t the m to know Ihat on their own. they can do enabling e n\ ironme nt you mus t thi nk of power generntion wNch we a re still having problems with in something not with cross border t",de. Prevention of importation of lireatm.! into the sial!;. the country. So, before we invite in veslors, you musl have somethif'g OIl ground and that is w hy we wiUlt to what an! your dforts in assurins the people 01 SiJhty? As the Chief security officer of this local govemment. start wilh agriculture. we are in constant touch wi th the Area Command of ..\I1•• t are rrurelforts at improving 1GB? Wha t I mel on pi'lper was below N lmillion. it was a! lIaro and the DPOs a ro u nd Yewas-So u th Loca l worse as thilt. TIle l<lSt administ ration made a mess of Government area. TIle securi ty of the Local Govern ment the whole thing. Like the entire infrastrocture we have rests on the Police and we ha\'e assured them that we on ground, 4!:' erything became so rotten to the extent would provide Ulem with logistic;. We cannot do more that people actu ally revolt again.c:;t them by not paying than that_ But from our monthly security meetings. we are s till theirdll1?5. W.. have three mOljor markets in Yewa South; Sayedero, Owode and Sabo, you cannot believe it that going to press it on the police to make sure thai whatever within a mont h, you can generate up to Nl m from the they live up to thci r duty by making sure that they dleck all market .md because the place was not renova ted, people vehides ronung in and going out of the coUntry through decided not to pay their ncressary dues fro m the market this border ;vea to ensure that they are properly mccked. Jus t last week. a HondsAccord car was recuvered from All the buildings, parlicularly all the market stores are dilapidated, in fact, lhe refuse d ump there was for a mall a t the newly created check-point in front of our matket there. The d ri ver ned when he was stopped and aboul five years but we have evacualed them. When we came on ooald we have been speaking to this madlet they discovered a pistol s tuck in the vehicle. Now you womell and t~' ey:see the seriousness in us. By next week. can no t go out o r coming in withou t being properly I will lead the team that wiII be collecting tax from them. checked.
advises on studies UPILS in Afiiio Local Government Area of Oyo s tate have been advised to conrent T<lte on their stud ies. The advice was Sive n by the council chairman, Mr. Oluade Olorode, at the occasion of the dis tribution of exercise books to pupils in rrimary schools across the counci l area. The chairman, who was accompanied by top local gove rn ment officials, said the new administration in the area was poised to rorrect the wrongs of the pas!. He added lha t he would work selnessly to complement the e fforts of lhe s tate government in meeting the yearnings and aspi rations of the people. Olorode assured the pupils that they would soon receive free texlbooics fro m the go\·ernmenl. He disclosed that the s tate governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, was poised to amelioT<lte ~he p lights ?f .the people through the execu tion of Prolects that WIll Impact positively on them. In his response, a parent ilt Bilptist Primal)' School. Okediji, 110ra, t..<lr. Tayo Timothy, said they were overw helmecl w ith the gesture of the council ~. He ass u red of the people's s up port and cooperation with the IlCW chilirman.
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Tofa LG boss tasks on development L LAM Muhammad Kawu Rano, the Interim Management Officer ( IMO) o f Tofa Loca l vemment Area of Kano State, has s.1id that for the socio-economic de ve lopment of the loca l government area to become il reality, the re is a need for politidans in the area to work together. . According to him, no government eQuid achIeve concrete socio-economic development without the s upport and cooperation of the teeming m asses of such an ilrea. This was contained in a press release signed by the Information Orocer of the round l, Malam Muhammad Marafa and made available to the N igerian Tribune. I-Ie added that th e IMO gave the advice w h ile receiving the local government execulives of the PDP who paid h im a v;sit in his office. Ma ll .. m Ra no, who stressed the need to ellSure a mutual coopernlion a mong the party supporte r!l, appealed to them to carry other party members along for the development of the party in their area. He pledged to give priori ty attention 10 boo~t i ng educaiion. health, agricultu re 115 well as provision of roads for the betterment of the people of the area ilnd solicited for U,e support of the party members to e nable him achieve the set objectives. Ko la Oye lere Kano
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Gunduwawa assures of infrastructure HE lnteri m Manage-ment Officer of Kim Loca1 Gov emment Area of Ka no s tale, J\l}lilji Alasan Gilrba Gunduwawil, has assured the teeming milsses of the ilrea of his administration's commitment to improving thei r weUare in various ways. He solidted the support and cooperation of the people to e nable h is admi nistrntioll to execute viilble projects fOT U,e progress of the area. Alhaji Gunduwawa made the request while 5pl'lIking to people of the area in continuation of his tout of the local govemment landed s tructures as we11 as slate and federal institutions in the area. He added that Ul(' purpose of the vis it was tosee things for himsclf in order to know their situation and nnd ways to .,dclres5 their problems. According 10 him, they \vere posled to local govemments to s.1tisfy the needs of people, especiOll1y in the areas of education, health, water supply and other viOlble projects that would improve on the socio-cconomic we11-being of the electorate. Gu nd uwawa also recalled that plans were underway 10 upgrade the health centre to become the best centre W;Ul all ncccss.1ry modem fadlities to compete with oUler modem health cenlTes in the country. Commenting on the issue of Na tare bridge which linked Kiru, Alhn7.3wa ilnd Zuwo fO,.d, whidl collapsed as a result of erosion iUld rili nfaU recently, he s tated that the coundl would request fo r the state government's assistance 10 add ress the eroblem. Kola Oyele re, Kano
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