Ajimobi approves N30 million for ex-gov Ishola’s burial
BY OLA AJAYI
IBADAN- GOVERNOR Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State has approved the sum of N30 million for the burial of the former governor of the state, Chief Kolapo Ishola, who died recently in Ibadan.
The governor has also set up a five-man committee headed by the Special Adviser on Political Matters to the governor, Alhaji Fatai Ibikunle, to liaise with another five-man committee set up by the Ishola family comprising his children and others.
Senator Ajimobi was said to have released the money to silence members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state for allegedly introducing political sentiments into the former governor’s burial.
A source told Vanguard that Governor Ajimobi approved the exact money requested by the family for the burial as a way of forestalling politicisation of the burial by some PDP stalwarts in the state who wanted government alienated from the burial.
It was gathered that some top PDP stalwarts in the state sought to monopolise the burial of Ishola and use it to indict the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, administration.
It will be recalled that Governor Ajimobi announced immediately after Ishola’s death that the state government would accord the late elder statesman a state burial.
The governor had said that Ishola’s loss was personal to him as he was an associate of his late father.
The burial ceremony, which begins on October 3, will culminate in Ishola’s burial on October 7, 2011.
Meantime, the Oyo State Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with officials of the Department for International Development of the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment on the construction of an international border market at Okerete, in Saki West area of Oyo State aimed at boosting trade and employment generation among others.
Before the signing of the MoU on Friday at the executive Chamber of the Governor’s office, Secretariat, Ibadan, the Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga said the signing of the project was a milestone in the history of the country because it was the first of its kind.
Speaking, Governor Abiola Ajimobi said the state had begun the process of making the proposed market the hub among international markets in the country.
To achieve desired results, he said the government had sunk boreholes for the neighboring communities surrounding Okerete and network of roads provided for easy access to the area.
After the completion of the market, the governor noted that it would lead to the employment of thousands of the people and that it would be a great haven of commerce for the people whose quest to export merchandise was unequaled.
