6th July, 2011
Oyo State House of Assembly having confirmed that 80 persons have so far lost their lives in the recent flood disaster in the state, has urged the state government to immediately reconstruct and rehabilitate bridges damaged recently by flood.
Urging the state government to immediately mobilise men of Oyo State Road Maintenance Agency (OYSROMA) for the work, Speaker Monsurat Sunmonu of Oyo State House of Assembly mentioned the affected areas to include: Ogbere and Foworogi bridges on Muslim-Egbeda-Tuba road in Oluyole Local Government, Ariyo bridge on Olorunsogo-Akanran road in Ona-Ara Local Government, Bababla bridge on Oremeji-Airport road-Ona Ara and Egbeda Local Government and Agugu bridge on Ode-Aje-Agugu road in Ibadan North East Local Government.
Monsurat further said that evidence of commencement of works on the affected areas be sent by OYSROMA to her office within two weeks of receipt of House resolution.
The house also mandated the state Ministry of Environment and Water Resources to initiate action on the provision of residents of Agugu with modern refuse dump, prevent all the rivers and streams in the state from giving residents sleepless nights, follow strictly the rules when approving building plan that could obstruct free flow of rivers, and sustain the current efforts aimed at ridding the Ogunpa river of refuse and other disused materials hitherto dumped in the river.
The speaker also informed that the House would be holding Yoruba session adding, “I want to inform the house that there will be Yoruba session now in the house. This will afford us the opportunity to tell people what we are doing”.
However, while the house was sitting, the beneficiaries of Federal Teachers’ Scheme (FTS), Oyo State Chapter protested to the house over failure of the erstwhile governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala to absorb them.
The protestants numbering over 1000 carried placards with different inscriptions urging the legislators to right the wrongs of Akala.
Stressing that they are tired of being unemployed, they demanded that they be immediately employed and paid the backlog of the allowances the state is owing them.
Their leader, Adekunle Opeyemi explained that Akala lied to have used them to campaign for second term, pointing out that Akala did not employ 1000 teachers as claimed during the electioneering campaign.
By Gbenga Adesina