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Tag: Sanwo-Olu

  • JUST IN: Supreme Court upholds Sanwo-Olu’s election as Lagos gov

    JUST IN: Supreme Court upholds Sanwo-Olu’s election as Lagos gov

    Nigeria’s apex court has unanimously endorsed the election of Babajide Sanwo-Olu as the Governor of Lagos State in the last gubernatorial election in the state.

    The seven-member panel of the Supreme Court unanimously agreed that Sanwo-Olu was duly elected as governor of Lagos.

    Supreme Court’s judgment was delivered on Wednesday by Justice Paul Galinje.

    According to Galinje, the reliefs sought by the appellant did not fall within the ambit of the schedule of the electoral act.

    He said the prayers sort before the court in an election matter were jurisdictional and must fall within the reliefs allowed by the law in section 138 of the electoral act.

    Sanwo-Olu, through his Counsel, Victor Opara had approached the apex court to upturn the order of the Appeal Court to resume hearing in the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in Lagos State.

    Chief Owolabi Salis, the governorship candidate of the Alliance for Democracy and his Labour Party counterpart, Ifagbemi Awamaridi had prayed the apex court to dismiss the appeal filed by the appellant and uphold the decision of the Appeal Court.

    A five-man appellate court panel had held that the tribunal was wrong to have discontinued hearing on the basis that the AD and its governorship candidate, Salis had abandoned their petition.

    “The case is to be remitted to the lower court for expeditious hearing of the matter,” the court held.

    Similarly, it overturned the decision of the tribunal dismissing the petition filed by Ifagbemi Awamaridi, the governorship candidate of the Labour Party.

    The appellate court ordered the return of the petition to the tribunal for expeditious determination.

    The Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Ikeja, Lagos State, had in June dismissed a petition filed by the AD and LP parties challenging the victory of Sanwo-Olu at the March 9 election.

     

  • I never saw myself as politician until 2018 – Sanwo-Olu

    I never saw myself as politician until 2018 – Sanwo-Olu

    Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Thursday said he never saw himself as a politician for over a decade that he held public offices until 2018 when he emerged to contest as governor of Lagos state.

    For all those years he was appointed to political offices, the governor said, “I saw myself purely as a professional – a technocrat- in politics and public service”.

    Sanwo-Olu disclosed this in a lecture he delivered at the 3rd Alumni Lecture of the University of Lagos, (UNILAG),
    Faculty of Engineering Alumni Association, which held at the University campus.

    The title of the lecture was: ‘Professionals in politics: Panacea for sustainable national development.’

    The opportunity to run as governor, Sanwo-Olu said, “was a bigger responsibility than anything I had ever done, and, and unlike everything before, not a role to which I could be simply appointed. I can say that it was at that point that I became a politician”.

  • No going back on construction of Fourth Mainland Bridge – Sanwo-Olu

    Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Wednesday said his administration is determined to build the Fourth Mainland Bridge.

    He also highlighted key component of his administration aimed at delivering his Greater Lagos vision.

    Sanwo-Olu revealed his administration’s strides while answering questions as a guest on Channels television’s flagship programme, Sunrise Daily on Wednesday.

    He said the construction of the 4th mainland bridge, would make use of private equity to achieve the project.

    “Two weeks ago, we advertised the 4th mainland bridge project locally and internationally. Our total budget for next year is about $3 billion and that’s the highest in the country. The 4th mainland bridge, from the design we have seen that it is a 37 kilometres road. We cannot handle it alone so we are going to use private equity. We have advertised. We have the alignment, we have the right of way and all of the biometric study. Let everyone worldwide come and play a role,” he said.

    While recounting the successes his administration has recorded in the last 196 days, the Governor said a lot of achievements have been recorded in the area of security of lives and properties of the residents. The governor revealed that he stays up to very late hours of morning tracking and monitoring security incidents in the State.

    The Governor said: “At a period like this – going to the end of the year, criminal activities are usually on the increase because people usually want to do things to make quick money. We are working on salvaging the situation. We have a new Commissioner of Police who has hit the ground running from the first day he came in.

    “You heard of the unfortunate incidence of an expatriate that was stabbed to death by domestic staff. I was up till 2am last Friday because we were tracking the suspects. The Commissioner of Police led the team and we were able to apprehend the two suspects.

    “Policing and security come in two ways. It comes with intelligence. What kind of information do you have prior to or after? You really don’t know who has a criminal tendency by mere looking at their faces. It has to be that we have more men out there on the streets and we must have ability to be able to respond when there is a distress call.

    “That’s why we keep increasing the number of vehicles we provide for them. We keep supporting them with a lot of communication gadgets. We keep saying to them that whatever they need to be able to respond when the distress comes, which is often sudden, we’ll give to them. When we do the analysis, it will be an issue of how well were we able to track and get the perpetrators of these acts.”

    The Governor reiterated his administration’s commitment to adopt technology to combat crimes and reduce them to the barest minimum.

    He said: “One of the things we realise is that security is also going tech. You need a lot of technology and devices to monitor crimes, and whilst we are doing a lot of hard things, we are also building up technology. Next year, we are building a new Control and Command Center as part of our Safe City project and Mega City security deliverables. We are going to bring to Lagos all those security measures you see in developed Nations.

    “At the first phase, we will install about 2,200 high definition cameras across the State. From a CCTV, we can view, review, monitor and track incidence as they happen. We will also train officials. These are some of the things that will happen in the first quarter of next year.”

    On the issue of the Nigerian Union of Road Transport Worker, the Governor said: “The NURTW is a national body of the Nigerian Labour Congress. It is a registered trade union organization.’’

    “Like other unions, they are under the supervision of the State government. We regulate and supervise them that they would be proscribed if they don’t conduct themselves well.”

    The Governor also touched on education, the environment as well as the economy of the State. He pledged his administration’s continued investments in these areas for the good of every Lagosian.

  • Sanwo-Olu renames Onikan Stadium after Mobolaji Johnson

    The Lagos State Government on Tuesday renamed Onikan Stadium after Late Brig. Gen. Mobolaji Johnson (Rtd) in recognition of his illustrious service as the first military administrator of Lagos.

    Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State announced the change of name during the Day of Tribute for Late Johnson at Onikan Stadium, Lagos Island.

    Sanwo-Olu said that the Onikan Stadium would now be known as ”Mobolaji Olufunso Johnson Stadium”.

    He said that the honour was necessary considering the achievements of Johnson to move Lagos State to greater heights.

    According to him, Johnson, the first military administrator and governor of Lagos State, set the state on a course and a race of an unending quest for improvement, innovation and development.

    ”Mobolaji Johnson was first appointed the Administrator of the Federal Territory of Lagos on January 15, 1966 and later as Military Governor at the creation of the State on May 27, 1967.

    ”His regime witnessed an increase in the state’s revenue from N36.7million to N99.7million. The increase was largely due to the revenue allocation formula that had just been introduced and increased revenue from crude oil, which was partly shared out to the state governments

    ”Under his leadership, the state government generated the larger proportion of its earnings from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). According to the government then, the IGR was known as ”sources under the control of the Lagos State Government”.

    ”The Mobolaji Johnson administration began the construction of Ikorodu and Mushin General Hospitals. It also modernised the General Hospital, Lagos, by building the new mortuary block, physical medicine department, sewage treatment plant and installation of a standby generator.

    ”The administration also commissioned the nurses hostel, doctors flat at Marina, Isolo and Harvey Road Health Centres,” he said.

    Sanwo-Olu said that Johnson’s administration also built the maternity annex at Onikan Health Centre and an additional ward at Igbobi Orthopedic Hospital.

    He added that the administration equally opened five new Government Colleges in each of the five divisions of the state.

    The governor said that Gen. Johnson’s administration also introduced the harmonised teachers’ salaries and conditions of service to enhance the status of the profession and commenced the implementation of the Universal Primary Education (UPE).

    Sanwo-Olu said that Johnson also completed projects under the Lagos Water Supply phase 1 Expansion Programme and designed the Owo Water Works as an alternative to Iju Water Works to serve Ojo and environs.

    Other strides of the administration are: Construction of the Victoria Island Sewage Scheme for Ikoyi, Lagos Island etc.; introduction of the regulations for motorcyclists to wear crash helmets; and introduction of Traffic Courts.

    Also the establishment of Agricultural Extension Works Stations; construction and commissioning of the Government Printing Press at Isheri road in Ikeja, among others.

    ”We gather here today not to mourn but to celebrate a distinguished life, the life of Brigadier-General Mobolaji Johnson, a great patriot, an accomplished administrator, one of the makers of modern Lagos who, sadly, will never share this physical space with us again.

    ”In whatever role we knew him, the first and longest serving military administrator of Lagos State stood out as a special person for his leadership and charismatic personality.

    ”If anyone was qualified to be addressed as “an officer and a gentleman”, it was General Johnson.

    ”Despite his imposing frame, he was as gentle as a dove. He never threw his weight around, even though he was a man of power,” he said.

    Earlier, The National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, extolled the virtues of Johnson, describing him as a man of integrity.

    ”Johnson was a true gentleman, a servant leader and a man of incorruptible character. He never used his position to amass personal wealth.

    ”He did not compromise in his profession. He left a good legacy in public service. He laid a durable foundation for Lagos State. He served the people and made them the cornerstone of social and economic policies.

    ”Johnson embarked on re-engineering and assembling the best cabinet to show transparency at that time.

    ”He showed courage and strong determination for the benefit of of Lagos State. His retirement was sudden following the coup in 1975. He lived a life of great contentment,” Tinubu said.

    Others who also spoke extolling the virtue of Johnson were: former Military Administrators, Brig.Gen. Raji Rasaki, Olagunsoye Oyinlola and former Governor of Ogun State, Olusegun Osoba.

    The first son of the deceased, Mr Seyi Johnson, who led family members to the event, thanked the Lagos Government for the honour done to his father.

    ”One of the lessons our father taught us as children is the attribute of tolerance. He told us not to discriminate against anyone irrespective of background,” Johnson said.

    Recall that Johnson died on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2019 after a brief illness. He was aged 83. Johnson was born on Feb. 9, 1936.

    The late first military governor ruled from May 1967 to July 1975 during the military regime of General Yakubu Gowon.

  • Just in:Sanwo-Olu renames Onikan Stadium after Mobolaji Johnson

    Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Tuesday renamed the popular Onikan Stadium after the first Military Administrator of Lagos, Brigadier Mobolaji Olufunso Johnson.

    Sanwo-Olu, who spoke at the Day of Tribute for the late Johnson at the newly reconstructed Onikan Stadium said the stadium would now be known as ‘Mobolaji Olufunso Johnson Stadium’ in honour of the deceased.

    Sanwo-Olu had extolled the virtues of Johnson, describing him as a distinguished man and a great patriot and an accomplished administrator who re-engineered the modern Lagos.

    He said Johnson, though a soldier, was never authoritarian and never ruled with an iron hand and that he ruled with a compassionate mind.

    Sanwo-Olu further described him as a great man with many parts, saying that the scope of his accomplishment was great, adding that he was a quintessential manager of resources.

    According to him, Johnson was a man with great foresight and a symbol of humility, fairness and justice and that he was in constant support of successive governments of Lagos State.

    “He was always willing to offer the right counsel. He was a regular feature of most of the ground-breaking events in Lagos State. his indelible reward for service remained intact and without blame. The projects he executed are still visible today,” he said.

    Earlier, former Governor of Lagos State and National leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu had extolled the virtues of Johnson, describing him as a man of integrity.

  • Sanwo-Olu vows to demolish houses on Right of Way in Lekki

    Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said his government will demolish buildings obstructing government’s Right of Way (RoW) at Lekki in Eti-Osa Local Government Area.

    Sanwo-Olu said this during a road assessment on Saturday in Lekki, saying that people had built structures without planning approval, thereby obstructing government’s RoW.

    Sanwo-Olu said that houses built on the RoW and obstructions on the alignment of the Lekki Regional Road were the major causes of flooding around Lekki axis.

    He said that the Lekki regional road was meant to be a relief access road for the Lekki-Epe express road.

    ”We have gone round and have seen that there are places where the alignments are still kept, and people still kept the planning approval of the state government.

    ”But a major place of concern is where people have completely bastardised the right of way, where people have built structures around the place, without approval.

    ”We are going to instruct the Ministry of Physical Planning to come and ask for their planning approvals. The ones that do not have, we will mark all those buildings for demolition.

    ”We want to also engage them because we will need to ask them what other alternatives they want to give us. What alternatives are they going to provide for government.

    ”If people that are meant to be civilised will come and develop on government’s right of way for future development of roads, I think it speaks to the soul of everybody,” he said.

    The governor said that building on RoW was a high level of irresponsibility by citizens and disregard for the state’s urban planning masterplan.

    According to him, government will not condone it or sit back and let people take undue advantage of the state’s planning laws.

    ”So let us take them to public courts, let us take them to the public domain, people need to see how reckless people can also live and they show that they are building with high walls with high gates.

    ”This government will not relent, we will do whatever it is for us to do, so that we can preserve the sanctity of the state, of the city and people that are law abiding must have respite,” he said.

  • Lagos Assembly approves Sanwo-Olu’s re-ordering of N93.7bn from 2019 budget

    Lagos Assembly approves Sanwo-Olu’s re-ordering of N93.7bn from 2019 budget

    The Lagos State House of Assembly has approved the re-ordering of N93,742,530,000 from the 2019 budget size by the state government.

    Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had requested the reordering of 2019 budget size due to shortfall in revenue.

    In a letter read on the floor of the House, Sanwo-Olu lamented lack of new revenue sources for the remaining months of the year, and requested for re-ordering of 2019 budget which stands at N873.532 billion.

    The governor said budgetary provisions of both recurrent and capital budget of ministries, departments and agencies were not likely to be utilized before the end of the year and that the sum of N34.050 billion could be re-ordered.

    The breakdown, he said showed that the recurrent is N24 billion while the capital is N10.050 billion.

    Sanwo-Olu, in the letter stated that the 2019 budget had been partially implemented by the last administration before the tenure came to an end on 29th May, 2019.

    The governor stressed that the present administration was confronted with the need to keep its electoral promises to the citizens and resolved to take advantage of clement weather condition in the later part of the year to complete various projects.

    “The State shall be raising a total of N250 billion broken down into a fixed rate bond of N100 billion from the capital market and an internal loan of N150 billion.

    The speaker, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa had committed the governor’s request to the joint committees on Finance and Budget and Economic planning.

    Presenting the report of the joint Committee on Tuesday, Hon. Gbolahan Yishawu stated that the 2019 budget size stood at 71 percent as August.

    According to him, the recurrent performance was 80 percent while the capital was 46 percent.

    In the motion which was moved by Hon Tunde Braimoh, the House approved the capital of N74, 824,648,162 and recurrent 18,918,059,368 to be reordered respectively.

    The Speaker, Obasa said since “it is an unanimous decision. Let’s pass the re-order so that the Governor and his team will continue to do the good work for Lagos residents.”

    Braimoh said, “We need to expeditiously consider the request of the Governor. The Committee had done justice, so let’s approve it so that the people of Lagos can feel our impact.”

    Hon Jude Idimogu also said, “I appreciate the Committee. I urge my colleagues to look at the report and make sure that it is passed.”

  • Lagos deep sea port ready in 30 months – Sanwo-Olu

    Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has described the signing of agreements that will deliver the first deep sea port in Lekki in 30 months as another milestone for the state in infrastructural development and commerce.

    Sanwo-Olu spoke on Wednesday at the signing of four agreements with China Development Bank (CDB), including $629 million financing facility, to accelerate the completion of the Lekki Deep Seaport project, which started in 2011.

    The loan was secured from the Chinese bank after China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), which owns a majority share in the project, signed a 45-year concessionary agreement with Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise Limited (LPLTZ) to complete the Phase

    He said the signing of the agreements ended uncertainty that had trailed the delivery of the project. He noted that the completion of the project would invigorate the Lagos economy and push it up in the index of largest economy in the world.

    “This is a new beginning for us in Lagos. We have achieved another milestone in our efforts to transform the State and accomplish the 21st century economy ambition. As a Government, we are fully in support of the project. We will do all we can to ensure the terms of the agreements signed today are delivered within 30 months as agreed and we expect the outcome would catalyse Lagos’ fifth largest economy and take it up more in the index of largest economies in years to come.”

  • Face Governance, Onitiri counsels Sanwo-Olu

    Political/social activist,Chief Adesunbo Onitiri has advised Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State to face Governance with all seriousness it deserves.

    In a statement in Lagos yesterday, the erudite, politician noted that since Lagosians trooped out to elect Governor SanwoOlu, nothing tangible has happened in the state.

    “There are myriad of problems such as security, sanitation, traffic jams everywhere, housing, bad roads, new minimum wage, youth unemployment, and several others dying for solution.”

    According to Chief Onitiri, since last month 100-day celebrations of all political office holders, till date,there was little or nothing to celebrate in the Centre of Excellence state. Now that the rains are here most of the major roads in Lagos are impassable and flooded.

    “We are yet to see the election promises of the Governor fulfilled. The Lagos – Badagry Express road is now worse off. Only bikes play the road. No vehicle can play the road. Seems people of Badagry are now cut off from civilisation.

    “The Ajah – ibeju Lekki is totally bad, always flooded and filled with pot holes. The Apapa gridlock is still very much present. Most roads in Lagos are flooded and covered with pot holes.
    “All the projects of former Govervor Akinwunmi Ambode are now left uncompleted and abandoned. We wish to call on Governor Sanwo-Olu to face Governance and stop hounding his predecessor”

    According to Chief Onitiri, Governors Babatunde Fashola and Ambode have set high standards, taking a cue from our former Action Governor Alhaji Lateef Jakande.

    The Lagosian cried out: “We wish to call on Governor Sanwo-Olu to face Governance and do the needful.Please this is a clarion call that you should fulfil your electoral promises,” Chief Onitiri pleaded.

  • Only 110 People Pay Above N10m in Taxes in Lagos – Sanwo-Olu

    Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has disclosed that out of the 4.5 million taxable adults living in the metropolis, only 110 pay taxes worth over N10 million.

    Mr Sanwo-Olu made this disclosure during the question and answer segment of The Platform Nigeria, an event organised by The Covenant Christian Church Place, Iganmu, Lagos, a religious organisation headed by Pastor Poju Oyemade. The annual programme was themed Redesigning the Nigerian Economy With New Ideas for this year’s edition.

    “You will be amazed to know that the number of people who pay more than N10 million tax in Lagos is about 110 people,” The Governor declared while fielding questions from convener of the televised event.

    However, the Governor asserted that his administration was not eager to increase tax rate in the state to meet its financial needs, but would concentrate on expanding the tax net of people who pay taxes in the state.

    “We are not saying that we should increase tax, but we encourage people to be on the tax net,” he said.

    Mr Sanwo-Olu further revealed that only about 700,000 people of the 4.5 million eligible taxpayers in the state pay taxes, which is just a little more than 15 percent.

    “We are also appealing to our tax agency to be more proactive and reach out to people who are not paying tax,” the Governor, who was greeted with applause, said.

    The Lagos state Governor also called for what he tagged Creative Financing, which he said would take a large chunk of pressure off the need for taxation.

    “We can do what we call asset securitization, which will look at all the assets we have and know which of them can we leverage something out of and put into capital expenditure,” Mr Sanwo-Olu stated.