Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has described the flood that wreaked havoc in Osogbo, the state capital after the Eid-El-Kabir Sallah as devastating and advised people of the state to desist from indiscriminate dumping of refuse on the water ways.
Speaking during his visit to affected areas including Oke-Onitea, Rasco, Fiwasaye and Gbomi, the governor commiserated with the relatives of the person who loss his life in the flood and also sympathised with those who lost properties.

 
The Governor said the flood occurrence took the state by surprise given the heavy investments of his administration on flood prevention since 2011.
“Considering our efforts in the past, we never expected this kind of flood. Our government deeply regret the flooding that has affected our people,” he said.
After the tour which took him to all the areas affected Aregbesola said, “We have been quite committed to ensuring absence of this calamity since the advent of our administration as we have been regularly dredging the waterways on annual basis and as a matter of fact, we are still very much indebted to those who normally work with us to ensure cleaning of our waterways.”
The governor attributed the development to what he called the negative impact of people’s activities on the environment, adding that a huge accumulation of wastes remains a major invitation to flood.
But the opposition party in the state blamed governor Aregbesola for the loss of lives and properties insisting that the governor must explain what he did with the ecological funds given to the state.

Gov. Rauf Aregbesola of Osun on Thursday in Osogbo attributed the recent flooding in the state to the negative impact of the people’s activities on the environment. Mr Semiu Okanlawon, the Media Aide to the Governor, said in a statement that the governor expressed the view during a tour of communities affected by flood recently.
 

 
 
The communities are Okeonitea, Rasco, Fiwasaye and Gbomi. Okanlawon quoted the governor as saying that “huge accumulation of wastes remained a major invitation to flooding in the state’’ as it blocked the waterways. He said the governor appealed to the people of the state to be hygienic and to cooperate with the state government in maintaining good liveable environment.
 
“Our people must henceforth obey government sanitation control and the collection of waste that we put in place. “If we religiously follow it, we will never experience this devastating flooding, everyone is urged to dispose his or her waste responsibly,” the governor added. He, however, expressed sympathy with those affected by the recent flooding, Okanlawon said.
 
The governor said the flood took the state by surprise judging by the heavy investments of his administration on flood prevention since 2011, Okanlawon added.
 
He added that considering its efforts at ensuring clear waterways in the past, the state government never expected the flooding. “Since 2011, the government has been embarking on massive dredging of waterways in all parts of the state in order to prevent such disaster.
 
“As a matter of fact, we are still very much indebted to those who normally work with us to ensure the cleaning of our waterways. “Our government deeply regrets the flooding that has affected our people,” Okanlawon quoted the governor as saying.

The Osun State government has promised to intensify efforts to ensure that waterways are clear to avert a recurrence of flooding that led to the death of one person and destruction of property.
 
 
 
Governor Rauf Aregbesola and his Deputy, Mrs Titilayo Tomori-Laoye, made the promise on Wednesday evening when they visited some of the areas affected by the flood to commiserate with them.
Addressing reporters at the Cac Oke Igbala DCC Headquarters in Gbonmi area of Osogbo, Governor Aregbesola said his administration was deeply sorry for the loss of life and property of the people.
Regularly Desilting Waterways
The Governor urged the residents to desist from indiscriminate dumping of refuse, which he said was largely responsible ‎for the flooding.

He said his administration had in time past invested so much in dredging the major waterways identified as flood prone zones ‎to avert such occurrence.
Governor Aregbesola, however, promised that his government would ‎intensify efforts at ensuring that the waterways were made free to avert future occurrence.
“We have been very much committed to ensuring absence of this calamity.
“Since the advent of the administration, we have been regularly desilting the waterways on an annual basis.
He said that although the state had received a flood alert, the government had, considering its deflooding efforts, it never expected it to have the devastating effect.
It had rained heavily for hours in Osogbo the capital of Osun State, resulting to flooding of some communities.
Residents said help that came from the emergency agencies or the state authorities was late.

Channels Television’s correspondent, who returned to the scene of the incident, said residents property have been destroyed and the flooding has left one person dead.
A woman and her daughter were trapped in a store just as many of the residents around one of the communities were stranded after a bridge collapsed.
One of the residents affected said the cause of the flooding was a bridge that they said drainages within the area were channeled, which they insisted was too low.
“The government should break down that bridge and carry it up just like that of Ajegunle and create a very good gutter here. That is all we need,” he requested.
 
Credit : Channels TV

Governor Rauf Aregbesola and his Deputy, Mrs Titilayo Tomori-Laoye, on Wednesday visited some of the flood affected areas ‎this evening to commiserate with the people.

Speaking to journalists at the CAC, Oke Igbala, DCC headquarters Gbonmi Area in Osogbo, the state capital, Governor Aregbesola said his administration is deeply sorry for the loss of life and property of the people.
The governor, who noted that indiscriminate dumping of refuse is largely responsible ‎for the flooding, advised the people to desist from blocking the waterways with refuse.
He said his administration had in time past invested so much in dredging of the major water ways identified as flood prone zones ‎to avert such occurrence.
He, however, promised that his government will ‎intensify efforts at ensuring that the water ways are made free to avert future occurrence.
An unidentified driver lost his life while several properties got submerged in flood as a heavy downpour left bitter tales for many residents of Osogbo, the Osun state capital.
Some residents in areas like Testing Ground, Rasco, Oke-Onitea, Fiwasaye, Gbomi and Iludun in Osogbo have been counting their losses as the rain came down heavily for three hours, causing flood in many parts of the city.

The state Government of Osun is set to recruit more Physiotherapists to improve the quality of physiotherapy services to the people of the state of Osun. The Physiotherapy departments in all the State Hospitals would also be rehabilitated and equipped with modern facilities for better services.
 

 
The Head of Service (HOS) state Government of Osun, Mr. Sunday Owoeye gave this assurance as the guest of honour at the programme for the Luncheon and Award ceremony to mark the end of the 3rd Bi-ennial Workshop organized by the Nigeria Society of Physiotherapy (N.S.P), Osun State Chapter, held at Leisure Spring Hotel.
The HOS who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Hospitals Management Board (HMB), Engr. Olusegun Aduroja also doubled as the Chairman of the occasion. In his keynote address, the Chairman enjoined the Physiotherapists who are into private practice to register fully with the state Government of Osun and pay their taxes
regularly as and when due.
The Awardees of the day were: Professor Akeem Lasisi, the Chief Medical Director of LAUTECH and Professor T.O Bello, the Head of Department of Radiology, LAUTECH Osogbo. The two Awardees pledged their continued support for the Nigeria Society of Physiotherapists.

The free feeding and health programmes introduced by the Osun State government to encourage school enrolment, attendance and rate as well as enhance pupils’ health has not only become a model for the federal and state governments, but also a platform for agricultural development  and food production. SINA FADARE reports.
 

 
 
At the onset, the primary objectives of the free school feeding programme introduced by the Osun State government was aimed at increasing school enrolment, encourage attendance as well as enhance pupils’ health in all public primary schools.
Farmers appear to be the major beneficiaries of the programme as they embarked on massive food production as well as having ready market for their produce.
The programme has also enhanced the income of local farmers; thus reducing poverty level as all goods are sourced locally.
On weekly basis, no fewer than 40 herds of cattle; 10,000 crates of eggs; 20,000 chickens, over 400 metric tons of fish are needed to feed the pupils.

About 500 unemployed youths were trained and empowered for mass fish production under Osun Fisheries Out-Growers Production Scheme (OFOPS).
The scheme supplies well over 400 metric tons of fish regularly for the school feeding while cultivation of cocoyam through a cocoyam rebirth programme was also encouraged.
Over 1,000 cocoyam farmers (selected across the nine federal constituencies) were trained and assisted to mass cultivate pink cocoyam for inclusion in the school feeding menu.
Today, the number has risen to over 15,000, as more women and young adults have taken to farming; cultivating cocoyam, vegetables, tomatoes and melon.The programme, which began in 2006, has become a success story and indeed a reference model for many states and countries as pupils from kindergarten to primary four in public primary schools are fed daily with balanced foods such as fish, meat, vegetables and fruits that are rich in protein.
The pupils are de-wormed twice a year. A comprehensive menu which, among other things, would help to develop the brain capacities of the growing children in their formative years was drawn up by stakeholders in the education sector.
The team argued that a well-fed pupil is likely to be healthy and more attentive in class than those on empty stomach.
Addressing delegates from all the states of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on the school feeding programme, Osun State Deputy Governor, who doubles as the Commissioner for Education under whose supervision the school feeding is carried out, Mrs. Grace Titilayo Laoye-Tomori noted that the programme began in 2006 as one of the 13 pilot states (Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, inclusive).
She explained that the Aregbesola-led administration extended the beneficiaries of the school feeding programme in 2012 to primary four pupils and rechristened it Osun School Feeding and Health Programme (O-Meals).
Mrs. Laoye-Tomori maintained that the free meals in public schools has led to sharp increase in enrolment from 155,318 to 194,253 after four weeks of its implementation, saying that currently over 252,000 pupils are being fed while they remain in school until closing time.
She said: “According to the Federal Bureau of Statistics Report of 2013, Osun State has the highest primary school enrolment rate in the country and the lowest number of children of school age being out of school.”
Mrs. Laoye-Tomori said that through the programme, the state was able to capture the actual figures of school pupils being fed under the programme which costs the government the sum of N18 million a week.She said a total of 3,007 food vendors were engaged, trained, kitted with uniforms and made to undergo medical screening.
The vendors, according to her, were given loans to procure cooking utensils and organised into 124 functional co-operative investment and credit societies for effective administrative purposes.
Mrs. Laoye-Tomori noted that the success of the programme has attracted compliments and accolades from both local and international forums.
In 2014, the British Parliament invited the Governor Rauf Aregbesola to talk on the implementation of the school feeding programme for which the Parliament praised him.
She explained that commendation also turned in from government of South Africa which sponsored her visit to the country.
While praising the delegates for the visit to have a requisite insight into the dynamics of the school feeding programme, Mrs. Laoye-Tomori advised them to sit back and fashion out what will work for their respective states and people.

Osun State All Progressives Congress has urged the people to reflect deeply about the state created about 25 years ago.
 

 
In a statement by its spokesperson, Kunle Oyatomi, in Osogbo, the state capital, the party called on indigenes to prepare for the 25th anniversary of its creation, which comes up on Saturday.
According to the party: “The mood of the moment calls for every individual’s deep reflection rather than festivities to identify and assess the progress made so far, economically,  educationally, agriculturally and infrastructurally to correctly determine how these have impacted the present and would potentially influence the future.
“Of the 25 years that Osun has been created, the last six years have been the most dramatic and monumental, even if partially controversial. It is a period that future generations will recall with nostalgia as when Osun was jolted from its slumber as a so-called ‘civil service state’ to a potential commercial hub of the Southwest.
“The socio-economic, educational and infrastructural development recorded by the state between November 2010 and now, which continues as you read this, is unprecedented in the history of the state. However, the gross indiscipline and economic mismanagement that characterised Nigeria’s Federal Government between 2013 and 2015, compounded by the collapse of crude oil prices at the international market over that same period,  hugely impacted Osun negatively.

“This calamity notwithstanding, the people of Osun can look back with some pride at what has happened in the last six years of ACN/APC government-led by Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola. The progress this state has made in the last six years is more than double that recorded in the last 19 years before Rauf Aregbesola came to power in 2010.”

The Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Olanipekun, on Thursday celebrated the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Akure involving him and other  contestants  in the town’s chieftaincy tussle.
 

 
The monarch, who was full of praise to God and the Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, as well as the kingmakers, said it was God who installed him.
The monarch spoke in Osogbo on Thursday  at a press conference he addressed as part of activities making the commencement of the 2016 Osun Osogbo Festival.

The monarch was sacked by the lower court and he proceeded to the Court of Appeal in Akure but the court ruled that the case should be started afresh at the High Court.
One of the chiefs in the town, who is the Ajaguna of Osogbo, Chief Gabriel Oparanti, burst  into songs of thanksgiving and dancing to appreciate God for the  favourable court verdict.
The monarch said, “I thank God for the grace given me to be part of this year Osun Festival.  This is my first public speech since the (Court of Appeal) court in Akure said I should remain in the palace.
“I thank the kingmakers because God did not put them to shame on the matter. My reign was punctuated at the lower court and we moved to the Court of Appeal in Akure and they said I should remain in the palace.”
The Ataoja also described Aregbesola as a good leader, who was not given to vendetta.
He said that he (Ataoja) and Aregbesola were not together when the latter was seeking to become the governor of the state but the governor rose above that and drew him closer after he had assumed office.
He said this kind of leaders were rare in the country while praying to God to uphold the governor.
“I thank the Osun State Government under Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, a governor, who does not go on a vendetta mission.”

Governor, State of  Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has called for a ban on the export of primary farm produce as part of strategies to ensure food sufficiency in the country.
 

 
Aregbesola made the call in Osogbo on Sunday in a statement he issued by his media aide, Semiu Okanlawon
The governor opined that the ban would enhance the value chains of the nation’s agricultural investments.
He also urged government to fashion out measures that would make agriculture to be attractive to a new generation of young Nigerians.
He noted that this would be viable option towards economic diversification, adding that Nigeria had yet to show serious efforts towards making farming a viable venture.
“We should stop exporting primary produce and start adding value. The value of a kilogram of exported cocoa beans increases 5,000% by the time it comes back as chocolate,” the governor said.
Aregbesola said the nation’s agriculture must be directed towards producing what the country needs and not what it could only export.

“The orientation of our agriculture towards producing raw materials, especially cash crops, for the industries in Europe and the Americas must be reversed.
Agriculture is needed primarily for food production; only well fed people can drive economic development.
Good nutrition is the primary basis of good health which drives productivity and energy,” he said.