Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has, on Tuesday, flagged off the payment of the Land Use Charge in the state with the payment of the bill on his personal property in the state.
This is as government also approved the Oyo State Resident Registration Programme, a programme that involves the registration and enumeration of all residents of the state which would also enable the government plan and budget more effectively.
These formed part of the decisions reached at the State Executive Council meeting which held at the Executive Chamber of the Governor’s Office, Agodi Secretariat, Ibadan.
Briefing the press after the meeting, the Special Assistant to the Governor on ICT and E-Governance, Mr Bayo Akande Jnr, explained that after the presentation and thorough deliberation of the idea of enumeration, the exercise got the nod of the state council.
Akande said: “This will also help in revenue collection and bring more residents of the state under the Oyo State tax net. I think this is a big win for the residents of the state as it will enable the government to be provided with more resources and allocate more resources to those who need it more based on data that we would have gotten from this exercise.”
Relieve of duty
Also at the briefing, the Commissioner for Finance, Mr Akinola Ojo, confirmed the sacking of the Chairman of the State Board of Internal Revenue, Aremo John Adeleke, by the Governor, on Monday, saying: “Yes, he was relieved of his job on Monday. As we all know, we serve at the pleasure of the Executive Governor of Oyo State and he has the right at any time to relieve anybody of his duty.”
Speaking on the Land Use Charge, Ojo noted that shortly after the meeting, the Governor flagged off the payment of the Land Use Charge, which was one of his cardinal electioneering promises, disclosing that he had never received the bill for Land Use Charge throughout the time he has been living in Oyo State.
Ojo stated: “What we have done in this administration is that we have gone through the process of enumerating all the property in Oyo State and every property in Oyo State now has a unique ID and we have also delivered bills to every property in Oyo state. The Governor flagged off the exercise with the payment of the bill for one of his properties.”
He encouraged Oyo State citizens to embrace the idea as people can pay their bill from the convenience of their room through the use of their ATM cards and smartphones, affirming that the essence of the Land Use Charge is to ensure that the state has the revenue required to carry out all the projects needed to uplift the people from poverty to prosperity.
Ojo said: “The only way we can move this state from poverty to prosperity is by expanding our economy and the way we choose to expand our economy is putting in place the right infrastructure and the right policies whereby we attract the right investment and invariably increase the IGR of the state.”
Passage of other bills
Other decisions taken at the meeting included the approval of three bills to be forwarded to the State House of Assembly for onward consideration and passage into law.
The bills are: Oyo State Audit Bill, Oyo State Assessment and Collection of Personal Income Tax Regulation Bill and the Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology Bill.
The Council also formally approved the relocation and establishment of the College of Agricultural and Renewable Natural Resources of LAUTECH to Iseyin, with a take-off grant to be provided for the school.
The briefing was attended by Commissioners Wasiu Olatunbosun (Information, Culture and Tourism), Professor Oyelowo Oyewo (Attorney General/Justice), Mr Olasunkanmi Olaleye (Education, Science and Technology), Mr Seun Ashamu (Energy and Mineral Resources) and the Special Assistant to Governor Makinde on Print Media, Mr Moses Alao.
Emmanuel Ukoh
