Ondo Gov. Akeredolu Gets NUJ Award

Ondo State Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu Aketi, SAN, has been conferred with an Award of Excellence in Infrastructural Development by the state Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). 

The award was conferred on the Governor at the State Secretariat of the NUJ on Tuesday, 26 November, 2019. 

The Chairman of the state NUJ Council, Comrade Adetona Aderoboye, said the award was in recognition of the giant strides of the Governor, adding that the Union decided to confer the award on Governor Akeredolu to serve as impetus for him to do more for the development of the state. 

He said: “Arakunrin Akeredolu’s diligence and unparallel contributions to the socio-economic and political development of Ondo State have not gone unnoticed by members of the Fourth Estate of the realm.

“It is worthy of note that the administration of Oluwarotimi Akeredolu took a radical departure from the past style of governance with the unprecedented commitment to the provision of infrastructure across the nooks and crannies of the state.

“In fact, the entire landscape of the state has been turned into a huge construction site with projects in road construction, education, health, water supply, agricultural and rural development, while it is needless to mention that the administration’s industrial drive is obviously yielding fruitful results.”

In his address, Governor Akeredolu said his administration, since inception, has done its utmost best within the available resources to create a conducive environment for journalists in the state to practice their profession through training and the provision of necessary infrastructural facilities.

According to the Governor, some of his administration’s interventions include; upgrading of facilities and the work environment of Ondo State Radiovision Corporation, which was comatose when he took over; rehabilitation of Adaba FM Road (ongoing) and the rehabilitation of the road to OSRC (ongoing).

The interventions also include the setting up of digital television studio for recording and presentation of government programmes for the Ministry of Information and Orientation; resuscitation and rebranding of Ministry of Information Newsletter which carries news across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and the procurement of two buses for Government House Press Crew to mention but a few.

Governor Akeredolu, who said he had not just watched, but received without revulsion, media attacks under the guise of press freedom and free speech, assured that his administration will never gag the Press. 

He said the two major news media houses of the State Government, the OSRC and Owena  Press Ltd, (publishers of The Hope newspapers) have enjoyed freedom from government meddlesomeness into their contents.  He said: “We cannot feign ignorance of the hazards of your profession to which you are exposed daily. To mitigate this in our own little way, I wish to restate my earlier decision to undertake the insurance of all journalists covering the Government House activities.”

-Dedeigbo Ayodeji

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