Author: oduduwanews

The governor was reacting to the recent crisis that rocked Igangan and its environs in Ibarapa Local Government of the state.

Some operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) had arrested suspected smugglers in the community, leading to a face-off between the operatives and the residents who mistook the operatives for the belligerent herdsmen and resisted the arrest.

The incident led to the death of the Coordinator of Amotekun in Ibarapa Central Zone, and two other people.

Makinde threatened to withhold the weapon seized from the operatives who invaded the community until he gets the attention of the Federal Government.

Addressing some Muslims serving in his administration when they visited him for the Eid-el-Kabir celebration on Tuesday, the governor said recent data indicated an improved security situation in Oyo State, following various security measures the government had taken.

He said part of the measures was the instruction to local government chairmen to involve traditional rulers as well as other voluntary residents in policing their areas.

Each local government is to spend N10 million monthly on this security arrangement.

Makinde explained that the initiative amounts to spending N330 million in the 33 local government areas, besides other efforts the state government had put in place to tighten security.

“On security, most of the data in the past months shows that things are now improving. The Igangan incident, some days ago, was only falsified by some people who were saying that Fulani herdsmen had invaded Igangan again. The truth is actually about the NCS and smugglers. They know each other.

“Customs officials were accused to have entered Igangan, which is not a border town. But we are working with Federal authorities and they have arrested most of them.

“The gun that was collected is still with us. I said I won’t release it until I get the attention of the Federal authorities.

“In the Constitution of Nigeria, Oyo State is a federating unit. We are not saying Federal agencies should not carry out their operations here. But they must tell us; they must inform us. They may not disclose the details of the operation to us, but we must know about it.

“If we had known about the operation, we would have pre-informed the security detail in the town and those who died could have been alive. The Amotekun Coordinator that died in Igboora would have still been alive today.

“How can you go operating in an unidentified vehicle in a town where the security tactics have been heightened? As they wanted to enter the town, they were confronted because we have heightened security in all of those places.

“So, we will keep appealing to them and to our people that false information won’t help anybody. Nobody will profit politically from the security issues we are faced with. It is our collective responsibility. The people will play their part and the government will play its own part.

“We said each local government should set up a security committee, which should include traditional rulers and voluntary people willing to police their areas. I encouraged them to budget N10 million to service the committee every month. For the entire state, that’s N330 million per month by all local governments, excluding what we are doing generally at the state level.”

In the spirit of Eid Mubarak, the Lagos State Government fed the State’s lndigenes undergoing screening at 81st Regular Recruits Intake exercise for enlistment into the Nigerian Army.

Details later.

The government said that all the 41 ghost workers would be removed from its payroll.

It also noted that it has discovered 341 workers with irregular records.

The Implementation Committee of the 2019/2020 Civil/Public Servants Audit and Payroll Re-engineering/Validation Exercise made these declarations in a statement on Wednesday.

The statement added that of the 341 who indicated their decision of voluntary retirement to the Implementation Committee, 290 officers had turned in their voluntary retirement letters, while the 24 officers who failed to take advantage of the two-month window have now been retired by the concerned agencies of government.

“The Implementation Committee of the Oyo State 2019/2020 Civil/Public Servants Audit and Payroll Re-engineering/Validation Exercise has recommended the removal of 41 staff classified as “No Show” (ghost workers) by the consultants.

“The consultants had indicted 602 officers and recommended them for removal from the payrolls but the Implementation Committee affirmed 41 ghost workers; cleared 40 others of any infraction; uncovered 10 deaths; 170 systematic retirements; and affirmed the option of voluntary retirement by 341 others with irregular records of service.

“Following series of reconciliations, the report of the consultants was received by the government on April 30, 2021, after which an Implementation Committee was put in place to fashion out the final implementation model,” the statement read in part.

The 13-member Implementation Committee, headed by Mr. D.O Olatunde, Permanent Secretary, Civil Service Commission, recommended that an administrative investigation be undertaken by the government to determine where the salaries of the ghost officers had been going.

According to the statement, the administration of Governor Seyi Makinde had, in a painstaking effort, set up a number of reconciliation meetings to review the report of Sally Tilbot Consultants, which undertook a forensic analysis of civil/public servants between 2019 and 2020.

The Committee, according to its report submitted to the government, had, however, recommended that 170 officers, who were found to have “retired systematically” (retirement according to age or years of service) be removed from the list of 602 earlier recommended for sanction by Tilbot Consultants.

Ten (10) others who were found to have died were also removed from the list prepared by the Consultants, while another 40 officers were cleared and absolved of any offence.

The report read in part: “From the above, it is observed that from the 602 alleged officers, one hundred and seventy (170) had already retired systematically due to no particular influence of the screening exercise and ten (10) deceased.

“Consequently, the Committee agreed that out of the 602 officers involved in the report: Forty (40) officers should be absolved and allowed to remain on government payrolls; one hundred and seventy (170) officers who had retired systematically should be allowed on pension payrolls, and ten (10) deceased officers should be paid their due entitlements.

It also agreed that: “three hundred and forty-one (341) officers that opted for voluntary retirement should be allowed to do so; forty-one (41) officers established to be “No Show” should be removed from Government Payrolls immediately; while the list of affected officers from Tertiary Institutions should be forwarded to their respective Governing Councils for necessary action.”

“They chained him in the cell where they put him in Cotonou. There was a fracas at the airport yesterday when he was arrested. They hit him in the hand and that same hand was handcuffed, he is in pains and he was weeping like a child when I called, I heard him.”

” The wife too was put in a separate cell but they didn’t chain the wife. He was crying, the wife was crying too cease he was writhing in pains seriously. We only pray they don’t pay anybody to kill him. You don’t out somebody in cell and still chain the person.”

“You know he sustained injury and they didn’t take him to hospital for treatment. We heard that he is appearing in court tomorrow but I don’t know whether that will carry it out.”