Engineer ‘Seyi Makinde, the governor of Oyo State has signed into law the Executive Bill on Oyo State Rule of Law Enforcement Authority, urging residents of the state to cooperate with the state government so they can have an Oyo State of their dreams.
The Bill was presented to the House of Assembly in order to bridge the gap in the enforcement of extant laws on traffic management, environmental sanitation and other issues, the governor noted.
He explained that law enforcement had faced serious challenges due to lack of adequate cooperation between state and federal relevant law enforcement agencies.
Signing the Bill passed by the House of Assembly, at the Governor’s Office, Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan, on Friday, Governor Makinde announced the appointment of Justice Aderonke Aderemi (rtd) as the new chairman of the enforcement agency.
He said: “I have just signed into law the Bill passed by the House for the establishment of the Oyo State Rule of Law Enforcement Authority.
“We went through quite a bit with the House. They wanted to know why we need a special authority to enforce the rule of law in the state. Well, we have been here for over four years and we have seen that we do have adequate laws to deal with in the aspect of protecting the environment, traffic laws, and road transport management authority.
“We also signed the anti-open grazing law but some of these we have not been able to enforce, maybe because we have not had full cooperation from the law enforcement agencies. But we have to keep striving for the kind of state that we are all comfortable with and we have been dreaming about.
“So, this is the basis for sending the Executive Bill to the State Assembly.
“I have had to deal with people driving against traffic, leading to maiming, even death. We have had several instances of deaths. We have had to deal with street trading. People have also turned the median of our road to dumpsites.
“Yes, we have been saying these things must stop and, in reality, they must stop. So, what this law is going to do is to allow quick dispensation of justice for the law breakers.
“That is why with the signing of this law, we will put everything in place to give a bite to the people that will run this authority. On that note, I will announce the appointment of a chairperson for this Authority, Justice A.A Aderemi.”
He noted that though his administration had signed many bills into law and made adequate laws to protect the environment and traffic management, among others, the rule of law authority would ensure quick dispensation of justice to law breakers.
He assured the new agency of maximum support, stating that his administration has been able to expand the state’s economy in five years and that in order to achieve its vision of taking the people from poverty to prosperity, the people of the state must cooperate with the government.
He added: “There will be mobile courts all over the places and if you are caught contravening any of these laws at 12 midnight or 1a.m, you will face the court at that hour of the day.
“But we are not just going to stay on the enforcement side, we will also have advocacy.
“Under the first tenure of this administration, we ran on four major pillars which are health, security, education and the expansion of our economy. On the expansion of our economy, we focused on our infrastructure and agribusiness.
“Under Omituntun 2.0, we felt we should be able to bring our IGR further and it is currently about N3.bn to N3.7bn monthly. When we came in, it was about N1.8bn. Yes, we have doubled it but it is still nowhere near what we want to see.
“That is why under Omituntun 2.0, we said we will further expand our economy through solid mineral development and tourism.
“So, I will use this opportunity to let the people know that this is your government you have installed. You ensured we returned to power but we must sanitise the environment and do what is right and what will bring about the expansion of our economy.
“If we have said we are going to do the needful in terms of taking our people from poverty to prosperity, then, the rule of law has to be central while we strive to create the right environment.”
Speaking earlier, the Deputy Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Hon. Muhammed Abiodun Fadeyi, said the lawmakers asked the tough questions and did due diligence on the Bill.
“On behalf of the Speaker of Oyo State, I want to present the Bill that was recently passed by the House; a law to provide for the Oyo State Rule of Law Enforcement Authority Agency.
“The House went through the Executive Bill and all the Ministries that are concerned appeared before the House.
The signing ceremony was attended by the Deputy Governor, Barr. Bayo Lawal; Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Olanike Adeyemo; Head of Service, Mrs Olubunmi Oni; Commissioners and other government functionaries.
Packaged by Adekunle Adegboyega
