Immigration urges calm over quit notice by Oyo council bosses

The Comptroller-General, (CG) of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Muhammad Babandede, has urged Oyo State local council chairmen to remain calm over the manhandling of one of their own by an Immigration officer, which led to a quit notice for all NIS personnel to vacate the state immediately.

In a statement, Babandede described as unfortunate the altercation that led to the alleged assault meted out to Chairman of Ibadan North Local Council, Oladayo Yusuf, also known as ‘Agbe Egbe’, by one of the officers of the NIS.

He said the service was disturbed that a minor misunderstanding was not quickly resolved leading to an unnecessary scuffle between two friendly agencies that have maintained very cordial relationship over the years.

The CG said the NIS and Ibadan North Local Council had continued to enjoy excellent neighbourliness over the decades, thereby making this altercation most unfortunate and assures that he holds the chairman of the council and his management team in high esteem.

Babandede, who said he had ordered an investigation into the unfortunate development, appealed for calm, stressing that due diligence will be taken to not only ensure amicable resolution of the matter, but that any personnel found to have acted unprofessionally is appropriately sanctioned.

In another development, Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde has declared that youths are extremely important to his administration and that the government will train 10,000 youths in agribusiness to take the state from poverty to prosperity.

Makinde said the era of using youths as political thugs and forgetting them afterwards had gone for good in the state. He then vowed that instead of the initial 3,300 youths scheduled to take part in training across the fields of poultry, fishery, animal husbandry, crop farming, irrigation system, hydroponics farming, ICT application in agribusiness, among others, 10,000 youths will now benefit from the scheme.

A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, indicated that the governor stated this at the graduation ceremony of the first batch of 300 trainees in the Youth Entrepreneurship in Agribusiness Project (YEAP).

Makinde maintained that the state government would support the beneficiaries, drawn from the 33 local councils of the state, by looking for markets for what they will produce.

The YEAP Co-ordinator and Director-General of Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency (OYSADA), Dr. Debo Akande, commended Makinde for sowing a seed of greatness through the project.