28th February, 2012
Governors of five southwest states that own Odu’a Investment Company today rose from its first meeting of the year to pledge more attention to the conglomerate with a view to sustaining the legacy bequeathed to the younger generation by the former leaders of the region.
To fulfill the pledge, the governors have decided to be meeting once every quarter towards ensuring profitability of the common heritage of the people of these states.
At the meeting held in the Executive Chambers of Oyo State Governor’s Office, Agodi, Ibadan were: the host Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola of Osun, Senator Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun and Dr. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti state.
Also in attendance were the secretaries to the state governments (SSGs), Chairman of Oodua Group, Sarafadeen Alli , the Managing Director, Jimoh Adebayo and members of the Board of Directors of Oodua Group.
In the communiqué read at the end of the meeting by the Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Fayemi, the governors described the meeting as a significant one through which the activities of the company in the last 12 months were reviewed based on the reports presented by both the chairman of the company’s Board of Directors and Group Managing Director of the group, Sarafadeen Abiodun Alli and Jimoh Adebayo respectively.
From the reports given by the two big shots of the company, Fayemi disclosed that the board and management had taken giant strides of recent at repositioning the company, part of which culminated in the relocation of the company’s headquarters to Cocoa House, currently enjoying 70 percent occupancy.
The governors in the communiqué commended the board and management of the conglomerate, which they described as hard working, stressing that the property base of the company in addition to Wemabod Estate had been expanded to as much as N76bn.
In reviewing the operational efficiency of the conglomerate, the governors decided to hire a consultant to look into the health of the investment company, principally to protect those facing challenges among the subsidiaries.
The governors in the communiqué maintained that everything needed to be done to make the conglomerate serve the people of the five states would be done and reiterated that they would create more time to interact with the Board of Directors of the conglomerate.
Welcoming the visitors to the meeting earlier, the host governor, Abiola Ajimobi said the meeting was to review the performance of the company with a review to ensuring its keeping with the mandate of the founding fathers.
By Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan