The Governor of the state of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola on Wednesday evening said should anything happen to any member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun ahead of the August 9 election, the Minister of State, Defence, Mr. Musiliu Obanikoro, should be held responsible.
The governor, at the launch of the students’ smart identity card at Salvation Army Middle School in Alekuwodo noted that it is on good authority that Obanikoro in conjunction with the Police Affairs Minister, Mr. Jelil Adesiyan have instructed security personnel to shoot and kill two of APC members.
He charged security agents to play by the rules, saying with what happened at the Nelson Mandela Freedom Park Monday morning, where people who were supposed to campaign for APC were turned back by security agents while same security agents allowed People’s Democratic Party (PDP) campaign in Alekuwodo in Osogbo.
Aregbesola questioned what Musiliu Obanikoro is doing in Osun; noting that members of APC have been told to be law-abiding but with the recent provocation, people when pushed to the wall will react.?
He said, “How could a party like the PDP be this desperate, Obanikoro with Jelili Adesiyan told the security agents that by the time two members of the APC are shot at and killed by the police, other members will learn from it, and with that the stiff resistance of APC will be destroyed.
“We want to use this medium to appeal to our security agencies not to allow themselves to be used by these PDP candidate and the two ministers whose party before this administration had been terrorising the good people of our state.?
“I am using this medium to tell the security operatives that Osun people are law-abiding people, they have always been contributing to the payment of your salaries and you are not supposed to harass them with the guns which were bought for you with tax money”. The governor told people who witnessed the launch.?
?
?On the smart Identity card for students, the governor noted that information Communication Technology is among other promising paths his administration has chosen to tread in the march towards realising the state’s development dream.?
With the launch of this smart identity card, Osun becomes the first state in Nigeria to provide it’s students with a card that contains all information that may be required on the student.
?
?Aregbesola held that in the history of human inventions, there are not too many that are as useful as ICT in terms of its efficiency and effectiveness at providing solutions to human problems.
?
?He stressed that ICT is the solution that his administration has embraced in order to solve and ease the problems of public administration in the state.
?
?The Osun Student Smart ID card will have all the biometric, personalised identifying features of the workers’ smart ID cards but without the ATM enablement.
With the card, each student is a uniquely identifiable individual that cannot be mistaken for another person. With it, government can identify all the genuine students in all the public schools, and have access to their information at the push of a button.
Aregbesola said the O’MEALS and other supplies to pupils will be checked off through this smart card, adding that it will give government the exact number of beneficiaries and eliminate fraud and accounting error of any type.
?
According to the governor, “We have applied it to our revenue collection and tax administration which gives us a good results, immediately we deployed it to our revenue collection system, our internally generated revenue jumped by 100 per cent from N300 million to N600 million.
?”We have deployed it to our salaries and pensions payment system, with very happy results for all. It has helped eliminated situations where our hard-working civil servants are short-changed in the payment of money due to them.
“In a similar vein, we have applied it to our pensions system in a manner that makes it possible to eliminate the stress and troubles that our retired elderly citizens are subjected to”. The governor noted.?
Aregbesola pointed out that the technology has removes the usually untoward intervention of intermediaries in payment to workers and pensioners that often makes underhand dealings and cheating possible.
He also added that government has recently applied ICT to the identity system of all his workers in Osun, saying it is the same scheme that is being extended now to the students.
Aregbesola revealed that, “with the new ID card, our workers now have a small smart card that can identify them as authentic Osun workers without the possibility of impersonation.
“The same small smart card enables them to cash money at the automated teller machines (ATMs) as well as gives them the capacity to cash up to 20 per cent of their salaries before they are paid.
“The card eliminates for all time the possibility of ghosts rising up from their graves to collect salaries and pensions in Osun”. The governor told the audience.?
?
Speaking earlier, the Deputy governor, Osun, Madam Titilayo Laoye-Tomori who also doubles as the Commissioner for education noted ICT is the solution that Aregbesola led administration has embraced thus making governance easy and productive in the state.
“We cannot but continue to pray for the governor for what he has done in the state. This is governor who is committed to the development of education. Presently, this administration is feeding close to 300,000 elementary pupils among others.
“With this innovation now Osun becomes the first state with this kind of identity card. Every information needed on each pupils is contained in the card”. The deputy governor averred.?
?
The Group Managing Director, Chams PLC , Mr. Charles Aladekomo in his remarks commended the governor for building of the ultra-modern schools ?and developmental stride in the education sector in the state.
He said,” I am proud and astonished that Osun is feeding pupils of elementary schools, this is a very serious business, it will gladdens me more if we have other state governments tapping into feeding pupils.
“What we are doing here is the first of its kind, this is more than an identity card because we have their full details and their family trees. It is with this that government will be able to plan for them.
“This will also afford the government of Osun the opportunity to plan it’s education as it affects student and education”. The Chams boss emphasised
