NUJ decries absence of council administration in Osun
Against the backdrop of an alarm raised by some farmers in Ago Owu community of Aiyedaade Local Council of Osun State over proposed mining on their farmlands, the state governor, Ademola Adeleke, yesterday, said there was no plan to evict them for mining activities.

It would be recalled that farm settlers, numbering over 24,000, had on Wednesday expressed concern over the letter by Special Adviser to the Governor on Mining and Minerals, Prof. Lukman Jimoda, which granted permission to a firm to carry out test and exploration within the farm settlement to do mining on the land.

The Spokesperson for the farm settlers, Adebanji Obembe, expressed worry over the imminent forceful ejection of the settlers, who are mostly youths and the aged, saying that the development may deprive them of their source of livelihood.

However, Adeleke, while reacting in a statement by his Spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, said that activities allegedly seen on some farmlands were part of the ongoing mapping of the entire state by the state’s solid minerals office.

According to the statement, state officials were moving around various towns and villages to implement the state-wide solid minerals survey, which involves soil testing, among others.

The initiative, according to the statement, is to avail the state government of assets in various sectors, assuring that the governor approved the exercise as part of his integrated efforts to consolidate exploited or unexploited resources of the state.

MEANWHILE, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Osun State Council, has bemoaned the absence of local council administration in the state, calling on parties involved to consider the negative impacts of the logjam and settle amicably.

According to the professional body, the people at the grassroots of the state have been at the receiving end of the political impasse that has left the council secretariats shut down since February 16, 2025.

However, the NUJ, in a communiqué, yesterday, signed by its Chairman, Wasiu Ajadosu and Secretary, Adeyemi Aboderin, after its monthly congress held in Osogbo, appealed to all stakeholders to meet and resolve the crisis, saying masses in local government areas have been suffering.