Lagos gives N5m to family of official who died on duty

The Lagos State Government has presented a N5 million cheque to the family of the late Moshood Ayeni, an official of Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI), who died while on  duty on May 23, 2017.

Speaking during the presentation at the Command Centre, Oshodi, Permanent Secretary, Office of Chief of Staff, Mr. Olawale Musa said the gesture was in line with the philosophy of the administration to support families of its officials who die in active service to the state.

Musa said care for the families of any worker of the state who died in active service is of utmost importance to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration.

“It is sad that Ayeni lost his life in active service to the state. The administration of Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu will continue to show its support for the family left behind by officers who lose their lives while on duty,” Musa said.

He admonished the beneficiaries to use the money judiciously.

Musa was represented by Mr. Akinrinmade Morakinyo, Director, Special Services.

KAI Marshal, CP Akinpelu Gbemisola (retd) expressed her gratitude to Sanwo-Olu for for the gesture.

Churches, mosques, hotels to open in Lagos June 19

WORSHIP centres are to reopen in Lagos as the government on Thursday released guidelines to further ease the lockdown.

Also to commence business are hotels and the hospitality industry, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said.

The reopening of churches, mosques and the hospitality business will take effect from June 19.

Worship centres will, however, only be allowed to conduct services on Sundays for Christians and Fridays for Muslims.

Midweek services and vigils will remain suspended.

Churches and mosques are not expected to operate beyond 40 per cent of their membership while those with large congregation where the members exceed 500, will be permitted to hold more than one service.

States, such as Osun, Kwara, Kano and Benue on Wednesday reopened worship centres.

Governor Sanwo-Olu also said those below 15 years of age and above 65 years old should not be allowed into places of worship “because those within that age bracket are extremely very vulnerable to the pandemic”.

He also urged all religious houses to adhere strictly to safety measures like fumigating and keeping the premises clean, and making sure that worshipers wear face mask and use of sanitizer.

The Lagos State Safety Commission will register religious centres before opening and inspect their activities to check level of compliance. He added that the state government had the discretion to stop or restrict worship where there is no compliance.

A statement by Director-General of the Lagos State Safety Commission, Lanre Mojola, advised all religious and social centers (social clubs, event centres, restaurants, bars, night clubs, spas, cinemas and gyms) within the state to commence the registration process on the designated portal www.lasgsa fetyreg.com immediately.”

Giving an update relating to the COVID-19 pandemic in the state on May 17, the governor said the government was considering full reopening of the economy, including critical sectors like tourism and hospitality, sporting, event centres, cinemas, entertainment, and religious gatherings.

He said businesses in these sectors would have to undergo re-registration before reopening and that the Lagos State Safety Commission and Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) would be visiting offices and business premises to assess the level of their readiness to resume operation.

Sanwo-Olu said: “We are at a level where we are reviewing the other arms of the economy. In the coming days, we will be starting what we call Register-to-Open, which means all players in the restaurant business, event centres, entertainment, malls and cinemas will go through a form of re-registration and space management.

“There is a regulation that will be introduced to supervise this move. We will be coming to their facilities to assess their level of readiness for a future opening. I don’t know when that opening will happen in the weeks ahead, but we want these businesses to begin to tune themselves to the reality of COVID-19 with respect to how their work spaces need to look like.”

Sanwo-Olu said primary and secondary schools will remain shut because the government is still consulting with all stakeholders in the sector and will come out with guidelines for their re-opening in a fortnight, and that the on-line classes for tertiary institutions continue.

From Monday, civil servants on levels 13-14 will resume with their senior colleagues on level 15 and above, while levels 1-12 would wait.

All other guidelines as announced by PTF on Monday would be enforced. They include: curfew from 10pm-4am, full re-opening of banks and other financial institutions, offices and businesses to operate from 7am-6pm; manufacturing companies permitted to do night shift but to make arrangement for movement of staff.

Restaurants will open for take away services only, while gyms, spas, cinema, event centres, nite clubs and all other such services remain closed and inter state journeys remain banned.

The governor admonished Lagosians to wear face masks always, saying the level of compliance on wearing of masks was not encouraging, adding, “let us self-regulate ourselves, regulate your conduct or government will regulate you.”

Sanwo-Olu also said the government will deploy 570 buses on the BRT corridor on various routes from next week.

Sanwo-Olu: One year after

Today, the Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu administration marks its first year in office. One year in the life of an administration means a lot: it is good enough time to assess a government in order to determine whether it is in course or it is floundering.

The Sanwo-Olu administration is a child of circumstance and necessity. It came into public consciousness like a bolt from the blue; and when it happened, it was crystal clear that this was a special child divinely ordained for exploits.

Sanwo who? That was the refrain on many lips when the man emerged in the Lagos political horizon. But no sooner had this happened than it started crystalising that a wonder was set to explode. The man carved a niche for himself as a “giant-killer”, walloping a sitting governor in a convincing manner to warrant his opponent throwing in the towel, willy-nilly, without a whimper.

He came into office by massive public acclaim but soon got confronted by adversity of varying dimensions. First, there was paucity of funds in the account of the most viable state in the country. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. But instead of whining and moaning about this adversity, Sanwo-Olu adopted a positive attitude of forging ahead by devising an ingenious method of pAutting adversity to good uses. He refused to adopt the weather-beaten path of castigating the administration he succeeded, even when it was apparent that many things did not add up in the method of the former administration.

Sanwoolu’s administration coincided with the advent of massive downpour when the potholes it inherited were made worse to become boreholes. Roads could not be mended when the heavens were opening up, but because of the public outcry which hardly recognised the constraints the inclement weather threw up, efforts were made to lessen the people’s agony by mending the roads here and there. However, much of asphalt went down the drain as they were washed off by the unceasing rains. It attracted much of public opprobrium for an innocent administration that came in when public disgust with the state of Lagos roads was on high.

Focused and determined, Sanwoolu and his team of his deputy, Dr Obafemi Hamzat and others, remained undaunted and forged ahead with the kind of engineering they employed. But it undoubtedly affected the new administration’s public rating at that early stage.

When the administration was struggling with the rains to make the roads somewhat motorable, it also had to weigh in, banning the use of motorcycles for public transport. That bold and courageous decision did not sit well with okada riders, and backed by a combination of vocal resentment by detractors of the government and uninformed but partisan and populist commentators, a strong attempt was made to force the administration’s hands to the end of reversing itself. It refused to buckle, giving a strong signal that it would not pander to popular but perilous public sentiments.

Safety of lives and property was central in the focus of the government and it held on to that like a leech, insisting that his administration had a duty to save lives and prevent the unintended but callous extermination of innocent lives by untrained and largely incompetent okada riders.

When the hoopla was thinning out, the coronavirus pandemic arrived on our shores and taxed the administration’s energy to sapping. But instead of the Sanwo-Olu administration to buckle under, it exhibited such ingenuity that in no time, it proved itself extraordinarily outstanding in dealing with the pandemic.

Lagos soon became the epicentre, but it was an opportunity beckoning that Sanwo-Olu packs a lot of vibrant ideas up his sleeves, galvanising his medical team led by his health commissioner, Prof. Akin Abayomi and the First Lady, Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, herself as a quality medical doctor, to evolve measures that made Lagos a show-piece in exemplary performance for other states to marvel at.

The head of the Presidential Task Force on Corvid-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, went round the country on the operation “pound the pandemic to submission” and what he saw in Lagos made him to declare that Lagos was the place to be where other states could come to learn.

It was not a statement made on the spur of the moment by the SGF. A visit to the maiden Isolation Centre inside the main bowl of the Onikan Stadium would convince any cynic that Lagos’ preparedness for the pandemic was unparalleled. The panoramic view of the wards of the isolation centre gives the impression that one is seeing the wards of St Thomas Hospital or Kings College Hospital or Lewisham University Teaching Hospital, all in London, with patients’ beds that are 21st Century-compliant, unlike the analogue beds in some other states’ isolation centres.

In the area of housing, unlike other administrations that delighted in abandoning the projects begun by their predecessors to vegetate and decay, Sanwo-Olu showed forward-looking trait by completing the housing estates he inherited and allocating them to lucky bidders, thus helping to reduce housing shortages in the state.

He is affecting roads construction in several parts of the urban and rural areas of the state, and the commissioning that are being done across the state this week and the next will be proof-positive that the Sanwo-Olu administration knows its onions.

As functionaries of the state government render accounts of their stewardships, Lagosians will be able to acknowledge this administration as worthy of its mandate. A close observation will reveal that Sanwo-Olu is not one to covet shoddy job or sycophancy. He’s bristling with more vibrant ideas that will be wìdely acknowledged in the course of the coming months.

Governor Sanwo-Olu has also shown himself as a good PR manager the way he has superbly cultivated several segments of the society, including the labour and the traditional institutions, whose relevance in their domains cannot be downplayed.

At the commencement of his electioneering for the governorship seat, someone conned an appellation for Mr Sanwo-Olu as “Mr Sellable”. He has to date lived up to that nickname. And if he forges on as he’s currently doing, there is every likelihood that his record of solid achievements in just one year will become a child’s play at his second anniversary!

Mr. Sanwo-Olu came up with developmental pillars tagged “T.H.E.M.E.S”

First he has come like a thunderbolt from oblivion to our consciousness in the last 365 days defeating an incumbent Governor in an open direct primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos state.

Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu was sworn in on May 29th 2019 after defeating all his opponents in the Governorship election in Lagos State on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC).

His first 8 months in office such tremendous accomplishments in areas of traffic and traffic management, transforming porthole infested roads to smooth motorable roads, improving the health facilities and training of health care personnel across the state.

Mr. Sanwo-Olu came up with developmental pillars tagged “T.H.E.M.E.S”

1. Traffic and traffic management
2. Health
3. Education and Technology
4. Making Lagos a 21st century economy
5. Entertainment and Tourism
6. Security.

He has come to govern Lagos with a clear and clairvoyant vision together with determination, commitment and abundant physical energy.

His banking and political experience has prepared him for this job. He has shown great desires and flexibility of faculty in implementing these programs.

The inland waterways are being vigorously connected and improved upon to be maximally used as a mode of transportation in the coastal state.

However, an extraordinary moment set in by March 2020 when the whole world was and still being ravaged by the Coronavirus(Covid-19). The disruptive and destructive Covid-19 brought human life to a temporary halt.

Such extraordinary moment requires quality leadership, which Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu demonstrated and still demonstrates his positive responses and management of the pandemic would be talked about for a longtime. Never before have our lives depended on the action and inaction of the government, he has shown that he is a Governor with character.

His position as the Governor of a state that is not only the major gateway to Nigeria but also the epicentre of the fight against the spread of the virus.

He was proactive and leveraged on the experience, the state had on “EBOLA” outbreak in 2014.

Nothing compares to a leader with a vision. He was prepared for an outbreak of epidemic but did not know the type, he therefore in choosing his Commissioner for Health he opted for a pathologist.

He, in conjunction, with his commissioner, have become a sight to be proud of when briefing the press and the citizenship of Lagos state on their battles against the spread of the virus.

This is just the beginning of this administration role of an “Incident Commander” against the spread of the disease putting some strategies in place that have largely helped in containing the spread.

Lagosians like other people of the world will by Gods grace be back to normal life and live to appreciate the full potentials of this man for all seasons.

Lagos pulls down distressed storey-building

The Lagos State government on Tuesday demolished a two-storey building located on Western Avenue.

The building, situated at Olaosun Close by Abati Barracks in Surulere, was said to have failed integrity test.

It was gathered that several fractures on the structure had prompted officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) to issue vacation notices to all tenants and sealed the premises.

The Nation gathered that a joint response team comprising officials of LASBCA, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) and Ministry of Physical Planning representatives oversaw the demolition which commenced on Tuesday morning.

According to the Director General of LASEMA, Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, the state demolished the building to avoid its collapse which could endanger lives and properties.

He said the government was aware of the danger such structures pose to residents especially as rainfall and wind storms get tougher.

Oke-Osanyintolu urged house owners to subject their buildings to integrity tests and ensure they take steps to effect recommended repairs when due.

On the effect of rainstorm at Iragon community, Badagry on Sunday, Oke-Osanyintolu said enumeration had commenced, adding that about 150 people are feared affected.

“No life was lost in the incident. The Commissioner two, of the Lagos State Civil Service Commission, Suru Avoseh said the wind storms affected over 100 buildings and left 150 people devastated.

“As a result of these claims, we have commended comprehensive enumeration of the entire affected community,” he said.