Oyo govt to get N2.7m books for students, 100 cars for security agencies

The Oyo State Executive Council on Tuesday approved the procurement of 100 units of Kia Rio 1.4 executive automatic transmission saloon cars for security agencies as well as over N2.7million exercise books for students in the public primary and secondary schools in the state.

The Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Dr. Wasiu Olatubosun, and his counterpart from the Ministry of Works and Transport, Raphael Afonja, made this known during a press briefing with journalists at the end of the meeting.

The meeting, which was held at the Executive Council Chambers of the Governor’s Office, was presided over by Governor Makinde, and attended by the deputy governor, Alhaji Rauf Olaniyan; Secretary to the State Government, Mrs. Olubamiwo Adeosun; Chief of Staff to the governor, Chief Bisi Ilaka; as well as commissioners and other principal officers of the state executive council.

Olatubosun explained that the council having followed due process, approved N832,650,000 for the purchase of the vehicles in order to strengthen the security architecture of the state.

He added that the Kia Rio cars will be supplied by the main distributor of Kia products in Nigeria to, among other things, commemorate the 100 days in office of Governor Makinde.

He stated further that a total of 1,515,864 exercise books of 60 pages each would be distributed to pupils in public primary schools and junior secondary schools, known as ‘Basics 1-9’ and each of the 252,644 pupils would get six exercise books each.

Olatubosun also stated that a total of 1,266,942 exercise books would be distributed to students in senior secondary school classes, and each of the 211,157 students would be given six exercise books of 80 leaves each.

He added that N447,257,384.10kobo was approved for all the 2,782,806 exercise books.

The figures of the students, according to him, was based enrollment figures obtained from the Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and Ministry of Education for 2019/2020 academic session, which will start by the middle of September.

Olatubosun said: “At our inaugural state executive council meeting, we succeeded in approving two procurements. The first one was approved in line with the administration’s free education programme.

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“The executive council believes that not only payment of schools fees and all forms of levies should be the determinants of free education. We believe that we should take a step further and that is getting students and pupils in public primary and secondary schools the exercise books, that is writing materials.

On the 100 saloon cars for security agencies, he stated: “At the last security meeting held with the security agencies, it was agreed that there was the need for the state to procure vehicles for all the security agencies.

“So, the SEC decided to procure 100 units of Kia Rio 1.4 Executive Automatic Transmission vehicles to shore up the fleet of vehicles of various security agencies. So, the SEC approved the vehicles, after considering a report of Due Process, that the vehicles should be supplied by Messrs Dana Motors, the major distributor of KIA products.

“Governor Makinde has also taken another step further by working out an arrangement with the supplier to also bring their major service centre to Oyo State, and they will also partner with us to maintain all the vehicles purchased from them.”

In his opening remarks, at the inaugural meeting, Governor Makinde congratulated the commissioners and charged them to contribute meaningfully to the progress of the state.

He said: “This is the first executive council meeting in this administration. It is pertinent for you to make your contributions here. Nobody will hold anybody to ransom for your contributions. You should not hold anything back because the more robust our discussion, the more robust our argument, the better the decisions that will come out from this executive chambers.

“I look forward to decisions that will impact the lives of our people, and that will bring accelerated development to Oyo State, decisions that will make us the true pacesetter state.

“Personally, in my own family, I am not the brightest person. I am not the smartest. So, also here. I don’t think my opinion should be taken all the time. You can challenge it. So, also whatever anyone of you brings to the table, we will challenge it. At the end of the day, we want to align for the interest of our people. We should not allow our personal interests to override our official conduct. We should hold ourselves accountable.”