Governor Oyetola made this known via a press statement signed by the Secretary to the State government, Mr. Wole Oyebamiji.

He disclosed  that  the government had directed security operatives in the state to enforce the directives without exception.

Cross over service is a service held late on New Year’s Eve, and ends after midnight. It is an annual practice in which millions of worshippers storm various religious centres for services to usher in the new year.

Oyebamiji, also informed that other directives aimed at curbing the spread of the Coronavirus were still in force.

“In addition, the ban on youth carnivals still subsists. Also, all social clubs, hotels, departmental stores, supermarkets, event centres and allied centres are to henceforth operate at half of their capacities and observe COVID-19 protocols.

“Wearing of face masks at public places is equally compulsory.

“We want to appeal to all residents and citizens to cut down on social gatherings, including weddings, naming ceremonies and funeral ceremonies so as to reduce the spate of exposure and contact with possible carriers visiting the stage during the Yuletide.

“Also all towns and cities are to put on hold the annual days through physical attendance and change such to the virtual version.

“We assure all citizens and residents that the Government is insisting on all these measures in their collective interest.

“Therefore, let’s all join hands with the Government to keep Osun safe”, the statement read.

The post What’s really behind the Osun’s cross over night services ban? first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post What’s really behind the Osun’s cross over night services ban? appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

The areas to be covered are markets, local council secretariats and the Ooni’s palace among others.

The Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Dr Obawale Adebisi, lauded the residents of Ile-Ife for complying with the government’s stay-at-home order.

Adebisi added that the fumigation exercise was part of the efforts of the state government in ensuring  total eradication of COVID-19, assuring that it would have no adverse effects on the residents.

He appealed to residents to show understanding and be patient during the lockdown, saying it was for the general good.

The post Osun begins fumigation exercise against COVID-19 in Ile-Ife first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Osun begins fumigation exercise against COVID-19 in Ile-Ife appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

The Osun state Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Mr Adedayo Adewole disclosed this at a meeting of the Project Implementation Committee (PIC) in Osogbo, the state capital.

Adedayo explained that the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, in conjunction with Agricultural Traders Welfare Association (ATWA), would be executing the project in the state.

According to the Commissioner, the project is a fallout of the economic and investment summit organised by the state government in November 2019 and targeted at boosting the economy of the state.

He said apart from the fact that the project upon implementation would boost the economy of Osun, it would also boost the business of fish farmers and marketers in the state and its environs .

Earlier, the representative of the PIC, Dr Joseph Okeke, lauded the state government for promoting discussion of the economic transformation of the state and Nigeria in general through agriculture and agricultural value chain.

Okeke, who also doubles as the National President of ATWA, noted that the project was targeted towards economic diversification by the Federal Government in the area of specialised agricultural market.

“It is also geared toward job creation, enhancing economic activities and facilitating exportation of Nigerian commodities”, he added.

The committee, comprising of the project facilitator, Dr Gabriel Eniola, Osun Fish Farmers Association Chairman, Mr Tope Ogundipe and Osun Commissioner for Lands and Physical Planning, Mr Nathaniel Agunbiade among others later inspected the site.

The post Osun Economic Summit: FG to Site Specialised Agricultural Market In Ijebu – Jesa first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Osun Economic Summit: FG to Site Specialised Agricultural Market In Ijebu – Jesa appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

The OSUCCIMA partnership commitment was given by its Ag. Director General, Chief Jide Falohun, who explained that the vision of the collaboration is to leverage on the Osun Osogbo Festival platform to boost job creation, entrepreneurship, commerce and business in Osun State.

The Lead Consultant of Esquire Global, the official Marketing Firm of Osun OSogbo Festival 2019, Mr. Tunde Muraina in a statement in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital on Sunday informed that the telecommunications giant, MTN Nigeria, GrandOAK, Coca Cola, Adron Homes and Property, Bovas and Company Limited are among corporate organisations and institutions that have given their support to the 2019 edition of the festival, just as the pre -festival events begin on Monday, August 5, with “Iwopopo”, the traditional cleansing of the town.

Muraina, also  disclosed that OSUCCIMA has introduced a product named Community day Cultural Festival for Employment and Job Opportunities, noting that the product would include Virtual Expo, Virtual Job and Global Trade Mission to the annual Osun Osogbo Festival.

He explained that this would be a continuous collaboration as sponsors and exhibitors would be able to showcase their products and services at a virtual exhibition booth, stressing that stakeholders would connect, collaborate and promote both live and on-demand anytime and anywhere for jobs and business opportunities.

He added that eZ-Xpo as a solution provider would join forces with OSUCCIMA to provide a series of e-tools to situate the Chamber of Commerce system within the context of the 21stcentury digital economy through virtual trade show technologies.

Muraina further pointed out that community leaders, party leaders, diaspora, industry leaders, entrepreneur and investors that cannot attend the festival to participate will connect remotely on their device to save cost and travelling time.

The post OSUCCIMA, others collaborate on Osun Osogbo festival as pre-festival begins Monday first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post OSUCCIMA, others collaborate on Osun Osogbo festival as pre-festival begins Monday appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

Announcing the postponement at a press conference in Osogbo, the state commissioner for Regional Integration, Mr. Bola Ilori expressed joy at the huge acceptance received by the idea of the summit.

Ilori said, “We must say we are pleasantly surprised at the huge interest the idea of the summit has generated across the country. We never estimated  that it will receive this volume of enthusiasm. It’s more surprising that we openly announced that we were not going to provide transport nor pay for accommodation yet 2097 conscious youths of western Nigeria have registered online on our portal before we closed it. This reality is quite different from the image people erroneously attached to our youths.”

“We considered it a matter of pride and privilege to receive ‘appeal of interest’ to participate from youths in diaspora most especially those that live and work in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Middle East. Also, a number of our youths currently resides in Northern and other Southern parts of the country. The appeal from these segments of our population have been so overwhelming. Most of them have planned to return home for the New year break.”

The commissioner added that the elders and critical stakeholders are virtually unanimous that it will be a major historical error to shut this critical segment of our population out of this epoch making event which is the first of its kind in the history of Nigeria.

“We have reached out to the office of the Vice President who is scheduled to declare the gathering open and some of the other dignitaries on this latest development and have expressed readiness to bend over backwards to accommodate the request for a short shift in the date”.

He further expressed the state’s delight in observing that majority of the  sons and daughters of Western region holds the development of the region as of highest priority.

Ilori, however assured that the event will hold within the next two weeks “we hereby announce a short postponement of the Regional Youth Summit 2017, initially fixed for 12th &13th of December, 2017”.

“In view of this consideration, we deeply regret all inconveniences the postponement might have caused.

Please, be rest assured that a new date, within this festive season,  will be communicated shortly.”

The Commissioner also used the medium to express the government appreciation to the media and committee members . “We want to thank you gentlemen of the press for your support since the first day we rolled out our plan to organize the first ever Non Partisan Regional Youth Summit.

“We appreciate the effort of our independent social media team for a job well done. We give kudos to all committees  at various levels that had given so much time, energy and commitment to drive this initiative far within a very short period of time”.

The post Osun Postpones  Regional Youth Summit to Accommodate Yorubas in Diaspora first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Osun Postpones  Regional Youth Summit to Accommodate Yorubas in Diaspora appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

The initiative, which was conceived and conceptualized by Alumni of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, Ogbomoso is aimed at rescuing the institution from imminent collapse through soliciting for fund.

The Accord Party (AP) leader donated N2, 000, 000 and his next 6 months  pension salaries to the cause. Sources who spoke to Mega Icon Magazine disclosed that his pension, is N644, 589.15 per month.

Ladoja, who is the Osi Olubadan ‎of Ibadanland, made the donation while receiving the team in his Bodija home in Ibadan.

In a related development, the 8 Accord lawmakers in the Oyo State House of Assembly also pledged a donation of N1, 000, 000.

Speaking at the reception, Ladoja, who said he did not have the privilege of going to LAUTECH, but studied in Belgium, noted: “I know the value of education. If you educate your child, you are ensuring a good future for yourself.

“It is not only that you are serving LAUTECH, you are serving humanity. What is going to be the fate of those students who have been in the same class for close to three years. Whatever happens to LAUTECH happens to all of us. My records are there in LAUTECH, as governor. I wanted to make the school number one but we made 5th position.

“That is commendable. Why thinking of the immediate, we must plan for the future. Is it safe to give it to government? Is it safe to trust government with LAUTECH. It is not good for us to think of ways of making it a private university with affordable fees. What is wrong in having a joint ownership?”, he questioned.

Earlier in his address, the leader of delegation of the University’s Alumni Association, Mr. Bayo Adeyinka narrated how many current and former students of the institution lost foreign admissions because they were unable to process their transcripts, adding that “about 37 consultants have left‎ the university.”

He added that‎ “Ogbomoso is now a ghost town because the economy of the state is attached to the university.‎ If any of the students who have been at home for 3 years take to arms, who are we going to blame? Anybody can be the victim.

“We are not saying the state should not ‎audit the institution, let the school be opened.  You cannot even audit when they are not in school.

“What we are doing is like a palliative. We are working with ASUU. When we finish raising the fund, we will give the staffs and they will resume‎ while the government continues auditing, within 3 weeks.

He continued, ” our long term objective is that by the time this is resolved, we want to use the fund to open an ICT hub so that everybody can develop technological thing in LAUTECH. Our short term is on what we can do to resolve this issue. Things have become worse that when they resume, some courses will have to be reaccredited.

It would be recalled that the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, who promised to chair the initiative’s Board of Trustees, donated N500, 000 to the cause last week.‎

The post Ladoja supports #FundLAUTECH initiative with over N5m. first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Ladoja supports #FundLAUTECH initiative with over N5m. appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

The report, also revealed that majority of the banks have closed shop due to either restructuring, merger or outright de-listment by the Central Bank of Nigeria and a total sum of N13.626 Billion subventions, excluding Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) was released to the institution by Oyo and Osun state governments between 2011-2016.

Revealing this yesterday, in Ibadan, the Oyo state commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Adeniyi Olowofela, while receiving the state executives of the Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN) noted that part of the recommendations of the visitation panel led by a far famed legal luminary, Chief Wole Olanipekun was that the accounts of the school and its workforce must be audited.

According to him, “We are not too comfortable with the accounting process or procedure of the institution, that is the least we can say now. ” Part of the recommendations of the visitation panel was that the accounts of the school must be audited; not only the accounts but the work force too must also be audited such that we look at the best practices on how to run this particular institution”. The bursary departments still rely on analogue mode of operation, with its attendant challenges and risks”.

The Commissioner continued, “When the government said you must have single account, in that visitation panel report, you have various accounts. If you have various accounts, you have not been accused of any financial difficulty, but we must know the truth so that at the end of the day, we will know whether something is wrong with the management, administration or the accounting process.

“The visitation panel observed that the University opened ninety-seven different bank accounts in almost all the commercial banks in the country. Some of the banks have closed shop, due to either restructuring, merger or outright de-listment by the Central Bank of Nigeria”.

In a like manner, Olowofela summarily analyzed as follows: “The subventions released to LAUTECH between 2011-2016 goes thus; Oyo state released 8,473,361,702.25, and Osun state contributed 5,153,047,345.74, totaling N13.626 Billion.

“Also, the students population is as follows : Undergraduate (Regular) – 27,457. Undergraduate (Part time ) – 1514. Postgraduate (Regular) – 2857. Postgraduate (Part-Time) 3054 . Open Distance Learning (ODL) 655. Total- 35,507 Students. Why is it difficult for LAUTECH to survive, since institutions with less students’ population are surviving?”.

“We must ascertain whether the government needs to jerk up the subvention or whether government needs to remove the subvention completely. We must know so that we will be acting based on facts. But what are we observing now, people are moving from one quarter to the other raising emotions “, Olowofela added.

Appealing to the labour unions of the institution to give peace a chance, he, however assured, “We are getting closer to the solution than to the problem. If we have an enabling atmosphere such that the audit firm is able to do the job there, the two governments will comply with the recommendations. The audit firm must submit its report within the next 3weeks. But it appears as if some people want to truncate the exercise. I am appealing to the workers to give peace a chance”, the Commissioner urged.

By Idowu AYODELE.

(C) Mega Icon Magazine.

The post Oyo, Osun released N13.626b to LAUTECH, insist on forensic audit. first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Oyo, Osun released N13.626b to LAUTECH, insist on forensic audit. appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.