POLITICS

Abiodun reconstructs damaged bridge, vows to resist Tongeji Island encroachment

&NewLine;<p>Ogun State Governor&comma; Prince Dapo Abiodun has ordered&NewLine;&nbsp&semi;immediate closure of the Adigbe-Opako road In the Obafemi Owode Local&NewLine;Government area of the state&comma; so as to hasten the total reconstruction of the&NewLine;collapsed bridge along the road&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Abiodun who made this statement &nbsp&semi;while inspecting the&NewLine;bridge that had collapsed some few weeks ago&comma; due to the large volume of water&NewLine;passing underneath the bridge&comma; said he was perturbed when he received the news&NewLine;of the current state of the bridge and the havoc the recent rain that fell had&NewLine;done to residents of the area&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8221&semi; You will have to be patient with us&comma;we will have to close&NewLine;this road&comma; because we don&&num;8217&semi;t want any bad thing to happen to you&comma; we will now&NewLine;begin work here and do it very well&comma; what happened yesterday must not happen&NewLine;again&comma; we have to be patient when doing the work&comma; so don&&num;8217&semi;t be annoyed about the&NewLine;stress you will all pass through when the road is closed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8221&semi; I have pleaded with the community to allow us close that&NewLine;road&comma; we are going to close that road immediately to enable us employ a more&NewLine;aggressive solution to ensure we permanently address flooding in the area&&num;8221&semi;&NewLine;he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>He made public &nbsp&semi;that his visit with the team of engineers&NewLine;and permanent secretary&comma; Ministry of Works had availed him with first hand&NewLine;information about the need &nbsp&semi;to change the ring culvert carrying water&comma; as&NewLine;the culvert was too small for the task&comma; adding that the small culvert had made&NewLine;it so easy for water to Leave its banks&comma; affecting residents of the area&comma;&NewLine;calling for patience from the people&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Dapo informed the affected residents that he would send the&NewLine;emergency relief team to come and meet them on Monday with relief materials&comma;&NewLine;adding that &nbsp&semi;discussions with the team of engineers on how best to go&NewLine;about finding a lasting solution to the road would also commence on Monday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In his remarks&comma; Permanent Secretary&comma; Ministry of Works and&NewLine;Infrastructure&comma; Engr&period; Kayode Ademolake said that work on the Adigbe&comma; Opako road&NewLine;would commence immediately and that the governor would be reviewing the&NewLine;modalities and the engineering approach to the problem&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>On the alternative for road users plying the Adigbe-Opako road&comma;&NewLine;Ademolake said that government would look at alternative routes and speed up&NewLine;construction activities so as to minimize the suffering of the people&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Adeifa Sogbehinde and Bose Omikunle thanked the governor for&NewLine;coming to sympathize with them&comma; saying that the government should fast track&NewLine;the process of alleviating their suffering on the road&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In the same vein&comma; Prince Dapo Abiodun has also directed the&NewLine;permanent secretary&comma; Ministry of Works and Infrastructure&comma; Engr&period; Kayode&NewLine;Ademolake to engage the Federal Controller&comma; Federal Ministry of Works&comma; in&NewLine;charge of Ogun &nbsp&semi;State and Julius Berger&comma; the contractor in charge of the&NewLine;Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway to do some remedial work on the road to give the&NewLine;people relief&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>He made the call at Itori while on inspection tour to the Yewa&NewLine;axis of the state for on-the-spot assessment of the infrastructural decay&NewLine;ravaging the area&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Prince Dapo noted that he would ensure that the road is made &nbsp&semi;motorable for the people&comma; adding that the road&NewLine;which was a federal road would be looked into in conjunction with relevant&NewLine;stakeholders in the corridor&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8221&semi; I have asked the Permanent Secretary to call me the&NewLine;federal controller of works and Julius Berger&comma; that is in charge of that road&period;&NewLine;I am going to ensure that they immediately do some remedial work on that road&NewLine;and make that road &nbsp&semi;motorable<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8221&semi; In terms of PPP&comma; I will take that up with relevant&NewLine;stakeholders in that corridor&comma; so that we can make sure we get a more&NewLine;responsible level of cooperation from them&comma; you cannot be a stakeholder&comma; enjoy&NewLine;all the benefits of what we have in terms of mineral resources and then your&NewLine;trucks are responsible for damaging our roads&comma; you have to be more responsible&comma;&NewLine;so&comma; we will ensure that we demand that from them&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he added&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>We won’t allow&NewLine;Benin Republic take over Tongeji Island<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><br>&NewLine;Ogun State Governor&comma; Prince Dapo Abiodun&comma; has reveal that his administration&NewLine;would not allow the Tongeji Island&comma; an island that shares boundary with the&NewLine;Republic of Benin to be taken away by Nigeria&&num;8217&semi;s neighbouring country&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>He stated this &nbsp&semi;when he&NewLine;received the Nigerian Ambassador to the Republic of Benin&comma; Ambassador Emmanuel&NewLine;Kayode Oguntuase and the Flag Officer Commanding Western Region&lpar;FOC&rpar;&comma; Rear&NewLine;Admiral Oladele Daji&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;According to his Chief Press Secretary&comma; kunle Somorin&comma; the&NewLine;governor &nbsp&semi;has expressed the determination&NewLine;of his administration to do all in its power to make life meaningful for the&NewLine;citizens of the state living within the Island&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>He added &nbsp&semi;that the Island which had been on his&NewLine;administration&&num;8217&semi;s radar because of its huge deposit of petroleum resources&comma; was&NewLine;of huge interest to his administration&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Dapo said the visit of the Ambassador would only make his&NewLine;administration to act even quicker and ensure that the Republic of Benin that&NewLine;shares boundary with the state does not take advantage of the Island located in&NewLine;the Ipokia Local Government area of the state&comma; adding &nbsp&semi;that his administration would immediately set&NewLine;up a team to visit the Island on a fact finding mission on what can &nbsp&semi;be done to assure the people of the area that&NewLine;they have not been &nbsp&semi;forgotten&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>He emphasized that he informed the Federal Ministry of Petroleum&NewLine;that the Island was of huge interest to the state government&comma; adding that his&NewLine;government had also began discussions with investors on the way forward&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8221&semi; It is a place where we do have valuable reserve and I&NewLine;have mentioned to the Federal Ministry of Petroleum that the Tongeji Island and&NewLine;Ogun Waterside are areas of interest to the state government and we have began&NewLine;discussions with others to explore partnership agreements under a Public&NewLine;Private Partnership to see what we can do in terms of prospecting the&NewLine;opportunities that lay beneath the soil in Tongeji Island and Ogun&NewLine;Waterside&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>He stressed that his administration would fast-track the process&NewLine;&nbsp&semi;to see other services that could be rendered to the people of the area&NewLine;and promised that he would take the issue up with the National Borders&NewLine;Commission&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The governor said he would also engage the Development Agenda&NewLine;for Western Nigeria Commission&lpar;DAWN&rpar; and involve Lagos and Oyo State governors&NewLine;that also share border towns with the Republic of Benin&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;Dapo while thanking the Flag Officer Commanding of the&NewLine;Western Region&comma; Rear Admiral Oladele Daji for ensuring that the water ways are&NewLine;free and devoid of anarchy&comma; urged the FOC not to hesitate to bring to his&NewLine;notice issues that are germane to the security of the region&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In his word&comma;the Nigerian Ambassador to the Republic of Benin&comma;&NewLine;Ambassador Emmanuel Kayode Oguntuase disclosed that his visit to the State&NewLine;governor is to intimate him on happenings in the area as the closet to the&NewLine;Island&comma; adding that it is important to let the over 1000 inhabitants of the&NewLine;Island &nbsp&semi;feel governments presence&comma; as the&NewLine;Republic of Benin is presently trying hard to lure the people and take over the&NewLine;Island because of the huge petroleum resources embedded beneath the ground&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The Ambassador &nbsp&semi;and the&NewLine;Flag Officer Commanding had with them the Consular Officer&comma; Mrs&period; Olubunmi&NewLine;Olanusi&comma; Commandant&comma; Nigerian Navy Secondary School&comma; Abeokuta&comma; Commandant&NewLine;&nbsp&semi;Dauda and the &nbsp&semi;Deputy Defence Attache&comma; Commandant Tony Bassey&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>……&period;&period;wins&NewLine;again in court<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In another development&comma; &nbsp&semi;Governor Abiodun has&comma; again&comma; won another case&NewLine;brought against him at the election tribunal seeking to nullify the March 9&NewLine;governorship election&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;According to Barrister Habeeb Ajayi&comma; counsel to Abiodun&comma;&NewLine;the case with No EPT&sol;OG&sol; GOV&sol;03&sol;2019 &nbsp&semi;filed by Mrs&period;Modupe Sanyaolu of the&NewLine;Labour Party against Abiodun of the APC and the Independent National Electoral&NewLine;Commission&comma; has being struck out on the basis that the petition lacks&NewLine;jurisdiction to reverse itself by re-listing the petition&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The counsel also disclosed that the Justice Halilu led tribunal&NewLine;dismissed the case pursuant to the provisions of paragraph 46&lpar;3&rpar; of the Schedule&NewLine;to the Electoral Act&comma; 2010 as amended&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>He noted that the case was also dismissed on the ground that the&NewLine;petitioner failed to attend the hearing of the Petition&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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