Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has declared that street beggars in Ibadan will be relocated to Kishi in Oke-Ogun zone of Oyo State.
The governor stated this on Saturday while featuring on Fresh 105.9 FM’s Political Circuit anchored by Mayor Isaac Brown.
According to him, street trading and begging had become a nuisance in the state, he informed listeners that his government had done its best to relocate the beggars to the state’s rehabilitation center in Moniya, yet one by one, the beggars found their ways back to the streets of Ibadan.
“When next we clear these beggars off our streets, we’ll relocate them to Kishi. It’ll be a bit difficult for them to find their ways back to Ibadan, that way,” Makinde said.
When questioned further on the programme, the governor admitted failure of Agbowo Shopping Complex rehabilitation and remodelling as well as initiatives on waste management.
On the Agbowo project, he admitted that though the Brent Group came first in the bidding process, Covid-19 and its mitigations prevented the company from coming on stream almost immediately, leading the government to move to the company that came second, after the intervention of a respected Ibadan elder.
Unfortunately, the governor said funding challenges which hit the second bider, and allegations that the bider’s financier also bided, more or less fouled the waters, coupled with allegations that that second bider was stripping the Agbowo Complex of valuable assets, the project had to be yanked off him. The project is currently under litigation, the governor noted.
On the environment, the governor alluded to the complex chain of insincerity in the sector, bringing up the matter of practitioners in the sector being regarded as “crooks”, as another hindrance.
