The Oyo State Government, on Wednesday, approved the award of the contract for the remodelling and restructuring of the Oyo state High Court and Magistrate Court Complexes in Ibadan through the Alternative Project Funding Approach (APFA).

The State EXCO has equally approved a new waste management initiative that will assist the waste management drive of the state government.

The government, according to a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Seyi Makinde, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, has also approved the reconstruction of the 2.275 kilometre Sijuade Road, Jericho, linking Akeredolu Street to the Police Barracks Gate and the main gate of the Police Headquarters, Eleyele, Ibadan.

The statement indicated that the State’s Commissioner for Public Works, Infrastructure and Transport, Prof. Daud Sangodoyin and the Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Abiodun Oni, provided details of the contracts awards and the new waste management initiative while briefing newsmen shortly after the State EXCO meeting held at the Executive Chambers of the Governor’s Office, Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan.

Speaking with newsmen, Prof. Sangodoyin stated that the construction of the High Court and Magistrate Court Complexes will be in two phases and will be completed within eighteen months.

He explained that the contract will be handled by the RTD Thompsons and that the contractor will help the state to remodel the two complexes and also construct an Amphitheatre; a conference theatre at Ring Road, while it will also remodel all the court rooms at both courts and also do some external works in the two places.

He said: “Today, the Executive Council decided that we should consider the remodelling, redevelopment and reconstruction of Oyo State High Court Complex at Ring Road and Magistrate Court Complex at Iyaganku and approved the two complexes to the tune of N6.01bn.

“The project was awarded to Contractor RTD Thompson, and the commencement of the phase one is June 2022 because the duration of the scope for the first phase is nine months.

"We believe that before the end of January 2023, we should have completed the first phase of the High Court at Ring Road, and later move on to the phase two, which is the Magistrate Complex at Iyaganku.

“What it entails is that the contractor is going to help us remodel the complexes of the courts including the Conference theatre at Ring Road and all the court rooms in the two places. We will also do some external works in those places as we have noticed that the libraries are not the modern type. All in all, the duration of the two phases is 18 months.

“The conditions attached are there, as the contractor will have to show the commitment of 20 per cent before we release the first tranche of the money. It is an APFA project. Subsequently, we pay the rest on equal instalment over the months. Our target is that, once the project is completed in February, we will still continue to pay in April and May before we start the second phase."

He added that the reconstruction and rehabilitation of a 2.275km from Sijuade road, Jericho to Akeredolu street, to Police Barracks Gate, to the main gate of the Police Headquarters, through Direct Intervention from the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, was also approved to the tune of 683 million Naira and that the the duration is eight months.

He explained that the expansion will cover the Commissioner of Police Road to the Police Training Centre and down to the Police Barracks at Iyaganku, saying this will help to motivate the Police and also improve on the socio-economic activities around that place.

Similarly, the Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Abiodun Oni, announced that the executive council also approved the new waste management initiative to solve the problem of waste management in the state.

Oni said the new waste management will be managed by Monttainai Recycling Africa and supervised by the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources.

He said: “Part of what we have discussed is how to resolve the issue of waste management in Oyo State. We also discussed some proposals about how to get a sustainable waste management measure that can resolve the crisis we have in the sector. We believe this will take care of the challenge in the state.

“We don’t want anything to happen to the existing PSPs that have capacity. This is also about our citizens, who need to understand how they need to dispose their waste.

“We don’t want people to be throwing waste in canals, streams. We have to generate waste and cannot see it as a problem but we should bring up a solution by managing it.”

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