Oyo government to buy 100 Daewoo buses

Nigeria’s Oyo State Government has approved the procurement of 100 buses at the cost of N1.7 billion.

A statement issued in Ibadan on Thursday by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Dr Festus Adedayo, said that the vehicles are Daewoo-model 43-seater buses to be purchased from Korea.

He said the sum included the cost of project administration, spare parts and the stay of Korean expatriates in the country for one year.

Adedayo also said that the state government insisted on bringing the Korean expatriates to train the state’s technicians.

The buses, he added, would be supplied in three phases of 30, 30, 40, with the first batch arriving the state in November.

He explained that the project would also include training, support, design, implementation and maintenance of the project so as to enable the state derive maximum value from the mass transit project.

The governor’s spokesman said a workshop would be constructed and maintained by the firm for one year during which technicians and engineers of the state-owned Trans City Transport Company would be trained on the handling and maintenance of the buses.

Adedayo said that some technicians and engineers in the state would also be trained in Korea.

He added that the procurement of the buses was part of government’s comprehensive transport policy for the state.

Other aspects of the policy, he said, would involve procurement of 18-seater mini-buses and taxi cabs aimed at removing some of the rickety vehicles currently being used for commercial purposes in the state.

Meanwhile, Gov. Abiola Ajimobi has approved the reconstitution of the Committee on Review of the Constitution.

A statement issued in Ibadan by Adedayo said that the 14-member committee is to be headed by the state’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Adebayo Ojo.

He said that the re-constitution of the committee, with membership from the Nigerian Bar Association, the academia, the human rights community and civil society groups, had become imperative in order to make the exercise public-driven.