The Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, on Monday, inaugurated new chairmen and members of boards and a commission in the state.
The boards and a commission that have new appointees include the State Universal Basic Education Board, Pool Betting And Lotteries Board, and the Ondo State Oil Producing Area Development Commission.
The chairmen inaugurated are, Victor Olabimtan, SUBEB, Olajide Akinroluyo, Pool Betting and Lotteries Board, and Sam Erejuwa, OSOPADEC.
All members of the boards and commission were also inaugurated.
Inaugurating the appointees at the Cocoa Conference Hall of the Governor’s Office, Akeredolu charged the appointees to resist all distractions and focus on the discharge of the mandates of their offices to avoid embarrassment.
Akeredolu said his administration would not permit any frivolities and disgraceful acts which place the people at a disadvantage, declaring that his administration will discourage all manner of acts of moral turpitude.
He said, “While we recognise the role of politics in the management of the affairs of the people, we will continue to resist actual attempts or even the faintest suggestions that the overriding interest of the people should be subordinated to whimsies and avaricious predilections.
“We intend to discourage all manner of acts of moral turpitude to the best of our ability. There shall be no compromise in this regard.”
Regarding SUBEB, the governor disclosed that his administration had been striving to fulfil all bilateral and multilateral obligations for the smooth running of the activities of the board.
According to him, ”This Administration has significantly abridged the infrastructural deficit inherited. There has been a phenomenal increase in the number of schools renovated and reconstructed.
“There is no local government which has not witnessed the activities of the government in the last five years. Our determination is to proceed until all the nooks and crannies of the state benefit from the programme of redemption.
“We employed about 1,200 teachers to augment the embarrassing deficit in the teacher-student ratio in our schools. We shall be directing all relevant agencies of government to submit returns on the distribution of personnel as well as their ascertainable contributions. We will not tolerate any lopsided posting of teachers to favour urban centres.
“Anyone in the employ of the board and the teaching service commission must be ready to serve in any part of the state. No senatorial zone will be shortchanged.”
Governor Akeredolu assured that his administration will ensure that the
incidence of abandoned projects is reduced significantly at the OSOPADEC, noting that his administration had accelerated the development agenda for the Commission since it came on board.
“OSOPADEC is a special Commission designed to achieve a special purpose. Its mandate is specific. Its mandate areas of Ilaje and Ese Edo LGAs require special intervention in their development because of their peculiar circumstances.
“The people who inhabit this area have been given the short end of the stick for too long. Our government has accelerated this development agenda since we came on board and we promise to charge the commission to remain focused on this mandate. We will ensure that the incidence of abandoned projects is reduced significantly.
“The Ondo State Pool Betting and Lotteries Board is a revenue-generating agency of our government. When we got to office in 2017, the Agency was abysmally generating between N17 million to N18 million annually. We have since reorganised the Agency and its processes are simplified.
“We want to thank the last Board for its scintillating performance. It is on record that the Agency has done the yeoman’s job of moving from an annual revenue of N18million to N245 million in the year 2021. The Agency now ranks among the 20 best revenue performing agencies of the state,” he stated.
