EARTHQUAKE in Oyo State as Ajimobi sacks all Commissioners & appointees

Political appointees in Oyo state woke up to a rude shock on Monday as the state governor, Abiola Ajimobi, terminated their appointment during an executive council meeting held with them in his office in the morning.

Sources said  that none of the governor’s aides had any inkling  of the fate that awaited them until their boss made the announcement.

The governor, in a statement signed by the Director of Cabinet in the state’s civil service, Dotun Omokemi, confirmed the sack.

It was a total purge as all members of the state cabinet, including the secretary to the state government, Akin Olajide; Chief of Staff, Adeolu Akande; all the commissioners as well as special advisers were affected, leaving only the governor and his deputy, Moses Alake Adeyemo, behind.

The release  by the state government said the governor decided to do away with the former aides in order to create space for fresh blood he intends to inject into governance ‘in the quest to serve the state better’.

While thanking them for the services they rendered, Mr. Ajimobi directed all the sacked commissioners to hand over to the permanent secretaries in their various ministries/ - premiumtimes

The Oyo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the dissolution of cabinet by the state governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi as an indication of the failure of his government, saying its position that the current state government is a let-down has been justified.

But in a swift reaction by the Publicity Secretary of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Mr Dauda Kolawole, the All Progressives Congress (APC) described the PDP’s claim as ignorant and uninformed.

According to a release signed by the Public Relations Officer of the PDP, Mr Kehinde Salawu, no leader would sack a performing team, thus, the recent sack of the entire cabinet by Ajimobi was an acceptance by the governor that he and his team had failed in the last three years.

“The popular saying that you don’t change a winning team surely makes the governor’s decision a justification of the disappointment of the people of the state in Ajimobi’s government. If he could sack the entire cabinet, then we ask him to prove that they had been effective and up to task in the self-acclaimed reformation of the state and if their ineffectiveness was one of the reasons for their sack, then Ajimobi and his party owe the people an apology for being such a catastrophic failure,” the PDP stated.

However, the APC, through Kolawole, noted that Ajimobi’s successes in just three years far outweighed what the PDP achieved in eight years of governing the state, saying: “The cabinet dissolution is not peculiar to Oyo State. Mr. President recently sacked some ministers, can we conclude that the PDP government has failed? The PDP is only making a mountain out of a mole hill and it is quite easy to see through their frustrations as they have been rejected by the people and will continue to be rejected because the people of the state have seen the difference between the PDP government and the Ajimobi administration that is people-centred and has transformed the state” . - Tribune

OYO State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, has promised the people of the state that the list of new members of the cabinet will be ready in two weeks time.

The governor made the disclosure to journalists at the Presidential Lodge, Government House, Agodi, Ibadan, on Tuesday, while receiving visitors who came to celebrate the 2013 Eid-el-Kabir festival with him.

It will be recalled that the governor dissolved the state executive council on Monday, September 23, 2013.

Apparently aware of the high expectation on the composition of the new executive council, the governor took the advantage of the Eid-el-Kabir celebration to douse tension but noted that certain things would have to be done before the announcement.

The governor, who had earlier observed the Eid-el-Kabir prayers at the Agodi praying ground and visited the residence of the Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland, Alhaji Arisekola Alao, opened the lid on why he dissolved the cabinet almost a month ago. He said: “The dissolution was based on so many needs. One of them is integration or reconciliation because the party and other stakeholders were complaining that they were not involved in government.

He, however, promised that in two weeks time, the new list of the state executive council members will be ready. “I have written to the party to submit names of nominees to be considered for appointments. This time around, we will make sure that all the local governments are fairly represented in the government.

“I am still waiting for the nomination list and once I have it, I will approve it. So, in the next 15 days, the new commissioners and special advisers will be ready. I am a expert in management and from time to time, you look at your organisation and see if there is need for repositioning, that is why we are there. What we have done is to try to rejuvenate the executive arm and by the time we come out with new members, everyone will witness a new drive to serve the state,” he said.

http://www.tribune.com.ng/news2013/index.php/en/news/item/24024-new-cabinet-list-will-be-ready-in-2-weeks-%E2%80%94ajimobi.html