Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi has signed into law the controversial State Governors and Deputy Governors Pension Bill.
The State House of Assembly had early endorsed the bill, which would allow top government officials to get two houses and three cars each as part of retirement benefits.
Other bills that got Amaechi’s assent were the Rivers State Universal Basic Education Amendment Bill of 2012, the State House of Assembly Service Commission Amendment Bill 2012 and the Rivers State Water Sector Development Law 2012.
Meanwhile, Amaechi has said that the Niger Delta region can only be developed if electricity and transportation are given priority.
Amaechi said this when members of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta paid him a visit at the Government House in Port Harcourt. He said that electricity must be stable in the Niger Delta region to attract investment and the development of the area.
Oyo Begins Construction of New Five-star Hotel
The Oyo State Government has begun the construction of a 150-room five-star hotel in Ibadan, the state capital.
The hotel, which is under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, will cost N6billion.
At the turning of the sod of the project, located few metres from the popular Premier Hotel and Cultural Centre, Mokola, Governor Abiola Ajimobi said the hotel is key to his administration’s restoration and developmental initiatives.
He said: “If Chief Obafemi Awolowo constructed Premier Hotel several decades ago, a government patterned after his, like ours, should also seek to equal, if not better, this laudable and evergreen initiative.”
The governor said the state would provide a cash injection of 10 per cent of the total cost of the project, besides the value of the site.
He said the hotel would provide an international conference centre and a banquet facility for 400–750 guests, adding that its facilities would be of international standard and with a touch of class that his administration is known for in the past one year.
Ajimobi said: “We have chosen this site as a result of the tripartite value addition we want the people of Oyo State and the guests from all over the world, those we expect in our state as a result of our aggressive developmental drives, to benefit from it.
“Indeed, this hotel is formulated to key into a triangular developmental corridor that we expect of this area. Already, the Cultural Centre, which we are going to develop to international standard, is sited in this corridor; so also is the legendary Premier Hotel, jointly owned by Oyo and other Oodua states.
“This hotel completes the triangle and is expected to provide complementary support to the earlier-mentioned existing members of the corridor.”
The governor noted that the establishment of the hotel became necessary because of the gap in quality hotel in the state.
He said: “This hotel is primed to provide hotel accommodation of international standard hitherto in short supply in the state, aside the projection that it will employ thousands of our people, improve our state’s internally generated revenue (IGR) and become a tourist attraction for visitors to our state.”
According to him, the project is only a small part of his administration’s plan to improve the lives of the residents.
Ajimiobi said: “In the next few days, this government will also turn the sod of a housing initiative that will provide hundreds of housing units to our people.
“Very shortly, we will also begin the construction of a 108-kilometre circular road that will encircle the whole of Ibadan, the capital of our state, and serve as the new nerve centre of development in Oyo State.”
The Commissioner for Land, Housing and Survey, Mr. Ajiboye Omodewu, said the hotel would be erected on 3.5 hectares of land excised from the Cultural Centre land, which had not been in use.
