₦airaland Forum

According to reports, both patients and medical personnel at the hospital had recently raised concerns over the disappearance of personal belongings. The situation reportedly took a dramatic turn when a man was caught with a phone alleged to have been stolen within the hospital premises.

Following his apprehension, a search allegedly uncovered ATM cards belonging to doctors, some of which had reportedly gone missing weeks earlier. Witnesses claimed that doctors at the hospital had been experiencing a series of theft incidents involving phones, laptops, ATM cards, and even motorcycles.

A witness who narrated the incident on X said the suspect had walked into the Oral Surgery Clinic moments before shouts of “Ole!” (thief) erupted from inside. According to the witness, the stolen phone was recovered immediately, while the ATM cards found on the suspect further raised suspicions that he might be linked to previous theft cases reported within the hospital.

The incident has generated discussions about security within public institutions and the need for stronger measures to protect patients, visitors, and healthcare workers from theft.

What do you think authorities and hospital management should do to improve security and prevent such incidents from recurring in major public hospitals?

A suspected gunmen attack on a school community in Oyo State has reportedly left a teacher dead, while the school principal and several pupils were abducted during the incident.

The attack has stirred fear and concern among residents, with many calling for stronger security measures to protect schools and communities in the state. Authorities are yet to release full details as efforts to rescue the victims continue.

Read full story on Oyo Environs Media.

A court in Ibadan has sentenced a man to death by hanging after he was found guilty of raping and killing a 1 ompsre both.7-year-old girl.

The judgment has generated reactions among residents and online users, with many describing the case as both heartbreaking and disturbing.

The incident has also renewed conversations around the safety of young girls, justice for victims of sexual violence, and the need for stronger societal protection measures.

Do you think the judgment will help deter similar crimes in society?

A 10-year-old boy allegedly caught stealing from a house has demonstrated how he operates.

The boy was said to have been caught in Ola Oba community, Sabo, Oyo State.


In the video, the boy is seen defly climbing the wall of the house and entering through the roof, before landing inside a room in the house.

According to him, the procedure is performed by two people. One waits outside while he goes into the house to retrieve things.

The adults questioning him asked him to take them to his father and he said his father lives in Sabo but has gone to work and won’t return till evening.

Visit link below to watch interview

The wife of Oyo State Governor, Engr. Tamunominini Makinde, has empowered over 850 nursing moms across 33 local governments in honor of World Breastfeeding Week, highlighting the critical role breastfeeding plays in baby health.

Mrs. Makinde urged nursing mothers to provide life-saving nutrition to their children, stressing that breastfeeding is essential for optimal growth and development.

She said this on Tuesday, in Ibadan, at the World Breast Feeding Week organised by office of the Wife of Oyo Governor in collaboration with Oyo State Primary Healthcare Board.

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#BreastFeedingWeekOYO #TamunomininiMakinde #EmpowermentOYO

[center]It is a new dawn for Oyo State smallholder farmers as the state government provides the needed support in the areas of land clearing, soil testing, farm inputs, fertilizers and funding. SULAIMON OLANREWAJU reports.[/center]

Full story on our webpage.

…Oyo APC Mourns
The All Progressives Congress APC in Oyo state has described the passing of its Chairman, Barrister Isaac Ajiboye Omodewu, as a devastating blow and a collosal loss not only to the party but the entire Nigeria.

The Otu-born lawyer, Omodewu, reportedly died in the late hours of yesterday in the United States where he had been receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness since November 2024 even as kept in touch with friends, associates and most Oyo APC stakeholders until he breathed his last on Sunday. He was 61 years old.

African leaders have been urged by President Bola Tinubu to take more calculated and purposeful steps to stop the talent and skill migration from their continent.

These efforts, he said, include stemming tribalism, rewarding performance and reforming archaic judicial systems.

Speaking on Wednesday evening at a luncheon hosted in his honor at the People’s Palace in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, President Tinubu stated that leaders need to support research and development by offering suitable incentives.

Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, revealed this in a statement he signed on Thursday titled ‘President Tinubu: We can stop skill exodus by enhancing performance incentivisation in Africa.’

The President said: “Why are we complaining about healthcare problems if our doctors cannot have a home in our continent? If our nurses are faced with destitution, and if our judicial system is archaic?”

Tinubu, who is on a three-day official visit, said development in Africa will begin when the continent starts to look inward for solutions.

He argued, “Tribalism has no place in our nation or region. We have to strengthen the continent. Cultivate and maintain peace together and help one another.

“We have to develop our resources for our progress. Find solutions among ourselves and focus incisively on research and development, and reward those research and development programmes. We must bring out the results ourselves. We must not outsource them or sell them out.

“To the international organisations, we are partners. We will continue to be partners, but we must implement more than half of the results of the research established here. We have many youths to take care of. Millions yearning for progress.”

The Nigerian leader thanked his host, President Teodoro Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea for the invitation to visit Malabo.

He stated, “It is a joy coming down here from Abuja, and for me, it is a homecoming. We are one single family on the continent. We are like twins held together at the hips. We have nowhere to go, but to cling to each other.

Read in full on our webpage friend

To increase dairy output and lower the cost of meat, a significant source of protein, the Oyo State government has started training over 100 livestock farmers in artificial insemination.

Participants at the training include local farmers, university students, government officials, and veterinary technicians.

Farmers from all of the state’s geopolitical zones are receiving training from the state government through its Agribusiness Development Agency (OYSADA) in order to increase their understanding of artificial insemination and boost the productivity of their cattle.

The training workshop is part of OYSADA’s broader agribusiness policy, which seeks to address rising beef prices that have impacted consumers and farmers alike. The program is a national project supported by the World Bank, which onboarded Oyo state through the Oyo State Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (L-PRESS).

Dr. Debo Akande, Executive Adviser to the Oyo State Governor on Agribusiness International Corporation and Development, and Director General of OYSADA, noted that artificial insemination (AI) is a global best practice in livestock production, adopted by developed countries to improve yield and quality.

The training focuses on technologies and techniques of artificial insemination, allowing for controlled breeding of livestock with superior genetics, accelerating growth of high-quality cattle herds, increasing productivity, and ensuring a consistent beef and cow milk supply.

Dr. Akande emphasized that by adopting advanced reproductive technologies like AI, Oyo state is improving the quality and quantity of beef and cow milk production, making it more affordable for residents.

The training program covers essential topics, including reproductive health, semen collection and storage, and insemination techniques, with hands-on practice to ensure proficiency.

Dr. Akande expressed appreciation to Governor Seyi Makinde for his visionary leadership and approval for the training workshop, marking the beginning of a new livestock project in the state that would ensure access to better quality beef and cow milk at affordable prices.

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Honoring Nigerian youth on the occasion of the 2024 International Youth Day, Senator Sharafadeen Alli (APC-Oyo South) has urged them to utilize digital technologies for sustainable development.
This is contained in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Akeem Abas, and made available to newsmen on Monday in Ibadan.

The theme of the 2024 celebration is
“From Clicks to Progress: Youth Digital Pathways for Sustainable Development.”

Senator Alli emphasised the critical role of youth in shaping the future of Nigeria, particularly in the digital age and encouraged them to be proactive in using technology to create positive change.

The lawmaker said that the theme reflected the immense potential that digital innovation holds for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

He called on youths to seize the opportunities presented by the digital revolution.

Senator Alli acknowledged the challenges facing Nigerian youths, particularly in the areas of unemployment and access to quality education.

He assured them of his commitment to supporting policies and initiatives that would empower young people and create a conducive environment for them to thrive.

According to him, the future of Nigeria rests on the shoulders of the youth, and their active participation in nation-building is indispensable.”

The lawmaker called on government at all levels, private sector stakeholders as well as civil society organisations to invest more in digital infrastructure and education.

He stressed the importance of equipping young people with the skills as well as knowledge needed to navigate the digital landscape and contribute meaningfully to the country’s development.

Senator Alli congratulated Nigerian youths on their resilience and creativity, urging them to remain steadfast in their pursuit of excellence.

He reiterated his belief in the power of the youth to drive Nigeria towards a brighter and more prosperous future through digital innovation as well as sustainable development.

The late Senegalese author Mariama Ba’s spirit has, in an unexpected turn of events, been called to Oyo State, where some citizens have been writing “So Long a Letter” to the governor of the state, Seyi Makinde, as well as the chairmen of the 33 local government areas in the state on social media.

These individuals, exercising their rights of free expression and press as guaranteed in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), have been vociferous in their support for the recent judgment of the Supreme Court on local government autonomy.

Governor Makinde has been the target of insults and baseless vituperations from some, while others have produced well-researched write-ups explaining why they believe the local councils should not be governed by the states. Governor Makinde has done nothing more than exercise his fundamental right to disagree with those who are celebrating the judgment.

In the past days and weeks, I have read with bewilderment the attacks and assaults against the governor and other individuals, who have raised issues with the judgment. Their position that the judgment was in contrast to the dictates of the Constitution and that it would pose some challenges has not even been given any consideration by the letter writers.

Governor Makinde belled the cat with this position on July 15, when he stated that the judgment created a constitutional lacuna that will throw some challenges at the local level, stating, however, that his government will not allow the people to suffer from the outcome of the judgment. But he was not alone.

Former governor of Ekiti State and former chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, also described the judgment granting autonomy to local governments as a misnomer and aberration in a federal system of government. Fayemi had said: “The President (Bola Tinubu) is a federalist, he is a leader in my party, we share quite a lot in common, but I do not know any federal entity anywhere in the world where the federal government becomes the driver of what happens in the local government.

Fayemi continued: “It does not happen anywhere in the world and the Nigerian Constitution in Section 2 is very clear that Nigeria is a federation of the federal (central government) and the state. It is not three tiers.”

Similarly, the pan-Yoruba sociopolitical group, Afenifere, had also pointed out the faulty nature of the judgment, noting that it was against the spirit of federalism.

Now, why did Governor Makinde hold the view that the Supreme Court judgment created a constitutional lacuna? Why did he think it could throw up challenges that can make the people of the state suffer? Does he have any point worthy of being evaluated dispassionately? Yes. He made reference to how pensions and gratuities at the local governments were unpaid for years until he got into office in 2019 and how within a space of five years, he has facilitated the payment of close to N50 billion in gratuities. The governor also explained that another N55 billion will be needed to offset the gratuity arrears and pay those who will retire between now and 2027 when he will leave office. When and if the direct allocation to the councils takes effect, will each council be saddled with the responsibility of paying gratuities to only indigenes of the councils who retire in their service or to every retiree? What will happen to councils where there are more staffers and pensioners, and as such, may consider discriminating against those not of their towns’ extraction? A similar situation with the payment of primary school teachers, local government workers whereby some local governments were left with nothing to develop their domains after salary payments led to the creation of the State-Local Government Joint Account in the past. What has changed and what will this judgment change and in whose interest?

To be continued www.oyonnenvironsmedia.ng

The refurbishment of the Community Television Viewing Center in Igbeti has commenced under the leadership of Hon. Qozeem Olayanju, the executive chairman of Olorunsogo local government area in Oyo state.

The Television Viewing Centre was built by the first executive chairman of Olorunsogo LG under the administration of Hon. Bello Azeez, and commissioned by Compol Amen Edore Oyakhire (Psc) on 19th of October 1998.

Despite being built for community use, the Igbeti Television Viewing Centre has been dilapidated due to neglect and lack of maintenance.

More photos on our website.

In October 2001, the management of The Punch sent me to the South-East, ostensibly to coordinate political reporting for the newspaper in the zone ahead of the 2003 elections. I then made Abia my base, from where I roved around the five states. Abia was a natural base because the newspaper had two offices in the state. Again, the state correspondent was on leave at the time, so I had the chance to report the state and the geopolitical zone at the same time.

One first rude shock I received was from an aide of the then Governor Orji Kalu, who had related to me as a publicist while I was on the Politics Desk of the newspaper at the Onipetesi, Ikeja office. He said; ‘Mr. Adisa, now that you are in the South- East, know this is a different terrain o. There are some people you must not touch with a long pole. I was interested in getting the list of the “bad” people and he wasted no time drawing the list. First was the then deputy governor, Enyinnaya Abaribe, then the Abia State chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Tony Ukasanya, the Chairman of Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC), Chief Onyeama Ugochukwu, National Secretary of the PDP, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor and Senator Adolphus Wabara, who was the senator representing Abia South at the time, and some other bigwigs of the PDP. The governor’s aide told me “These people are very dangerous that they would make my stay in the East difficult.”

But having grown up in an Ondo community where discrimination was alien, especially with a father, who was practically the Asiwaju of non-natives, Nigerians, or non-Nigerians, I couldn’t fathom such segregation. So I decided to know more about the “bad people” of Abia. I got their contacts one after the other. Of course, I had the contacts of Chief Ugochukwu, one of the journalism greats we have known.

My first contact with the then-deputy governor, Abaribe was pleasant. He never showed signs of a man overtaken by the ‘hugeness’ of his office and saw me to the door. Such a humble, soft-spoken politician. And I went around all the “bad people” discovering their meekness and deep concern for Nigeria, rather than the giddy, power-grabbing culture of the ordinary politician that was painted. My friend was infuriated seeing I had interviewed most of those on the list of ‘no-go areas’ he had presented to me and I had to tell him off.

Yes, it’s impossible to finish narrating the entire bit of my South East Odyssey in this piece but enough to say that we will always need to try out the stereotypes we build or got built for us about individuals, people, or events. What I saw in the South- East were human beings, living their lives the same way those on the streets of Oshodi or even the main market in Kano would. Politicians play politics the same way it is played in any of the other geopolitical zones. I saw nothing to denounce my early life experience in the home of ‘Baba Eji’ as the Ondos would call Baba Ibeji (father of twins), where all tribes and tongues converged for evening rendezvous after the day’s hard work.

My humanity-first experience and conviviality among tribes and tongues were further reinforced by some of the heroic stories we saw emanating from the Nigerian Civil War or in the immediate prelude to that devastating battle. If we recall some of those stories, we will easily conclude that perhaps our oldies need to tell more of such to today’s Gen Z generations and the fast fingers, who easily rain curses and abuse on others on account of tribe and tongue. Some of those who readily ‘spill blood’ online, promote hate and cruelty in the name of ethnic jingoism.

Two of such instances will come in handy here. We’ve read of the story of the then military governor of Western Region, Lt. Col Adekunle Fajuyi, who opted to die alongside his Commander-in-Chief, Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi, while the latter was a victim of a counter-coup on a visit to Ibadan. The Ekiti-born Fajuyi, a Yoruba of the South West, laid his life for Ironsi, an Igbo, from the South-East.

Then we heard of the ‘abandoned property’ saga in the Port Harcourt axis. None of such happened in Lagos, as many Igbos who had fled to Biafra land in the heat of the war, met their properties intact and even received the balance of the accumulated rent for the years they were away.

Recall that these are no fictions. They were incidents that bed-rocked today’s Nigeria and they cannot be wished away. If today’s generation is trivialising those incidences, you would understand the revered writer, Prof Chinua Achebe’s apparent frustration when he wrote There Was a Country.

Today, the old sane Lagos is being defined by ethnic jingoists and tribal champions who want us to chase the Igbos away. To where I am tempted to ask. Have they done a census of the series of intermarriages that have taken place between and among people of different ethnic colorations, especially after the end of the war in 1970? The mother of the governor of Osun State, Ademola Adeleke hailed from Ukwa, in Abia State and I know Chioma, who got married to Adeleke’s nephew, the popular musician, David Adeleke (Davido) is also Ibo. That’s just to mention one family. So, how do they divide the children in the face of an ‘Igbo Must Go’ agenda? The same sane Lagos, that we saw in the immediate aftermath of the civil war, is today being rechristened an entity of monstrous ethnic bigots, who are moving to launch what they called the ‘Igbo Must Go’ campaign. I must confess that the current crusade is an offshoot of a similar wrong-headed campaign around the 2023 general election, where ethnic bigotry abnormally took the centre of affairs in Lagos. I believe it was, and still is, a result of a miscalculated assumption that ascribes to the Igbos, every “anti-system” occurrence in Lagos. If some acclaimed lords of Lagos politics lose an election in Lagos, that should be an avenue to pause and check what is amiss. Rather than pick cudgels and cutlasses to chase away those who don’t speak your language. The Yoruba has a saying that we all cannot sleep and head in the same direction. It means that individuals, whether they are your siblings or your biological children, have the power to think differently. If the Americans, the British, and all resort to such, how many of our kit and kins out there would remain abroad?

Last week, the South East caucus in the National Assembly highlighted what I see as the emptiness of the Igbophobic campaigns in Lagos in recent years. The caucus, in a petition to the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, demanded the arrest and prosecution of the promoters of the vicious ethnic jingoism called the ‘Igbo Must Go’ campaign. In the petition signed by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, leader of the South-East Senate caucus, and the leader of the caucus in the House of Representatives, Hon Igariwey Iduma Enwo, the lawmakers drew IG’s attention to “a bigoted anti-Igbo tweet made on the 27th of July released on X account of @Lagospedia, wherein Lagosians and every South-West stakeholder were asked to prepare for massive protest of ‘IgboMustGo’ on the 20th to 30th of August.”

Rather than descend into the gutter like pigs anytime things don’t go their way, politicians and political merchants should spare us a thought and stick to the ideas that edify humanity as we saw in the Ironsi/Fajuyi incident and the great people of Lagos who were their brothers’ keepers.

The N570 billion hardship grant that the federal government allegedly provided to the state
governments has been denied participation by Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde.

On Sunday, August 8, President Bola Tinubu in a nationwide broadcast during the #EndBadGovernance protests against hunger and hardship, disclosed that the Federal government had disbursed N570bn to the 36 states. The President said Nigeria spends N2tn monthly to import Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, and Automotive Gas Oil, otherwise known as diesel.

He revealed that during the first half of 2024, the Federal Government’s coffers accumulated
N9.1tn in total fiscal income, a notable increase over the amount earned by the previous administration.

[center]“Also, more than N570bn has been released to the 36 states to expand livelihood support to their citizens, while 600,000 nano-businesses have benefitted from our nano-grants. An additional 400,000 more nan0-businesses are expected to benefit,” the President said[/center]

However, in a newsletter No 95 |August 2024 personally signed by the governor and shared on his X handle on Thursday, said the state was not in the know of such a grant.

what he shared on X!

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The 2024 World Breastfeeding Week in the capital city of Oyo state, Ibadan, which was arranged by her office.

“We must create a society where nursing mothers are supported and empowered to breastfeed their babies without fear of stigma or discrimination,” Mrs. Makinde said.

She emphasized that nursing improves a baby’s cognitive development, strengthens the link between a mother and her child, and lowers the chance of infant death.

“Breast milk is the best gift we can give our children, and we must do everything possible to promote and support breastfeeding,” she added.

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