3rd January, 2016
Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta
Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun state has cleared the air on the rumour that he has concluded plans to concession all the model schools built by his administration.
Amosun declared that the issue of concession is far away from his plan, rather he is bringing in expatriates to assist in developing the schools and train our people for some years.
In an interactive session monitored on both state owned Radio and Television stations, OGTV and OGBC, Sunday night, the governor maintained that he is not tired of working, contrary to speculations that most governors don’t work during their second term in office.
He also revealed how the compensations on demolition of houses are being paid to the owners, saying that not all affected persons have been paid.
According to him, “let me clear air on this issue. We are not concessioning any of the model schools. What we are doing is partnering with various groups and expatriates to assist in training our people.
“As I speak with you, the French government has agreed to partner with us, some people from Germany have also shown interest, even the police have come asking for a school, but we told them to remain calm as everything will be sorted out.
“All these people are bringing their money and they will train our people for about two to three years and they will leave. Nothing is being concessioned, but they don’t know. I have said that you don’t give what you don’t have.
“On the compensation to those that their houses were demolished, we have paid between N10 – N15 billion. We have not paid everybody, I can’t come here and tell you that we have paid everybody.
“I want to thank our people for their perseverance on this. Due to the fund paucity, what we are doing is that we are paying randomly. If we pay 10km from this axis, we move to another area and pay another, so as to ensure that it cuts across.
“Those that are above 70 years, we don’t pay them money, what we do is that we build their house for them and relocate them back there. And for churches, mosques and schools that were affected, we mend their fences and reconstruct it for them.
“We are not relenting as we just have to ensure that all our ongoing projects are completed. President Muhammed Buhari will be coming next month to commission these projects and all hands are on deck.
“From tomorrow now, we will only be sitting in office on Mondays and Fridays, every other day, we will be on the road, monitoring all the projects, we have distributed ourselves and that is how its going to be till we celebrate the 40th anniversary next month, February 3,2016,” Amosun said.