Friday Omosola
Ondo State Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, has on Monday charged the newly inaugurated Chairmen and members of Boards and Commission in the state to resist distractions and focus on the discharge of the mandates of their offices to avoid embarrassment.
The Boards and Commission are the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Pool Betting And Lotteries Board, and the Ondo State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (OSOPADEC).
Inaugurating the Chairmen and members at the Cocoa Conference Hall of the Governor’s Office, Akeredolu said his administration will not permit any frivolities and disgraceful acts which place the people at a disadvantage, adding that his administration will discourage all manner of acts of moral turpitude.
However, he charged the new SUBEB Chairman to live up to expectations, saying his administration has been striving to fulfil all bilateral and multilateral obligations for the smooth running of the board activities.
He said since he assumed office, he has significantly abridged the infrastructural deficit inherited, letting out 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. We determine 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,” the Governor added.
Furthermore, Akeredolu assured that his administration will ensure that the incidence of abandoned projects is reduced significantly at the OSOPADEC.
Corroborating, he affirmed that his administration has accelerated the development agenda for the OSOPADEC since it came on board, promising to charge the commission to remain focused on its mandate.
“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”.
More so, he said the Ondo State Pool Betting and Lotteries Board is a revenue-generating agency of the sunshine state government, pointing out since 2017, the agency has generated between N17 million to N18 million annually.
“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 annual revenue of N18 million to N245 million in 2021. The Agency now ranks among the 20 best revenue performing agencies of the State,” he disclosed.
