Hardship: Ekiti Assembly to end sharp practices by business owners

The Ekiti State House of Assembly has vowed to clamp down on business owners and organisations engaging in sharp practices at the detriment of residents of the state.

The speaker of the house, Adeoye Aribasoye, made this known while speaking during a special citizen engagement held at the Assembly Complex in Ado Ekiti.

The programme was facilitated by the Office of Community Communications in partnership with Justice Development and Peace Initiatives and the Ekiti State House of Assembly.

According to him, top on the list are estate agents, petrol stations, land grabbers, and middlemen in markets, among others.

He noted that though the house had passed a law to check the activities of land grabbers, it would also come up with stringent measures to address cases of filling stations, estate agents, and traders who deliberately extort members of the public, thus complicating the current economic realities.

Aribasoye noted that the present administration would not tolerate any illegal activity that could jeopardise the dream of Governor Biodun Oyebanji of making Ekiti a model.

“Tough times await individuals, agencies, and private and public organisations engaging in sharp practices and unwholesome activities that can further inflict hardship on the people of Ekiti,” he said.

The Director General, Office of Community Communications, Mrs Mary Oso-Omotosho, promised that the administration of Governor Oyebanji would continue frequent engagement with the people, especially at the grassroots, on the programmes and policies of the government.

She noted that members of the governor’s cabinet agreed that “government does not need to work by its manifestos alone but sometimes takes time to verify if the plans are truly what the people wanted.”

The Commissioner for Youth Development, Gold Adesola, said more initiatives would be adopted “to shift the attention of youths from politics to meaningful ventures that could make them self-sufficient and business leaders who can reshape the nation’s economy.”

In his remarks, the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Ekiti State Council, Kayode Babatuyi, suggested the need for political office holders to make themselves accessible to people at the grassroots so as to give them a sense of belonging.

Babatuyi also suggested constant media engagements to enable journalists to project government activities and pass the right information to members of the public.

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