By Gbenga Sodeinde
The Chairman, Emirin Community, Mr Jacob Olugbenga Babalola has pleaded with the state governor, Mr. Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji to support the community in providing social amenities which would guarantee meaningful development of the area.
He also reeled out his achievements since October, 2022 that his team as executive members of the community have been elected to provide leadership.
Mr. Babalola who equally vowed to be upright and operate open and transparent administration declared that he or any member of his team would be ready to answer any questions or query in case of any petition against them before any panel or commission at anytime.
The community chairman made the remarks to assure that his team were really out to serve the community consciously and do so with fear of God.
He added that that “ Every single Kobo contributed by the community will be accountable for by his team”.
Speaking with HeritageNews, and a Landlord in the community, Babalola listed many achievements of his administration since elected in October, 2022, which according to him included the gate at the entrance of the community, security for the community, arrest of criminals and cash donation among others.
He also appealed to members of the community to rally round him and give him their support, adding that he was much determined and committed towards ensuring that Emirin community witness greater development.
Speaking about the gate project, Babalola noted that there has been a lot of criticism and oppositions to the project but alluded to the fact that those who are in support and appreciate the gate are more than those that are against it.
For instance, “we have people in the community whom without asking for it have been able to give monetary supports voluntarily when the project was going on, and alot of others greeted, and sent messages commending us for the initiative and some even donated bags of cement for the project voluntarily”. Babalola added.
Speaking further on how the gate was erected while the road project which the people contributed for seems to have been abandoned as many people believed that the money which was contributed for the road project has been diverted to the gate project, Babalola who debunked this insinuation gave an explanation on how they got the money which they used for the gate project.
“We didn’t tamper with the money contributed for the road project, the money is intact, the people have contributed only N400,000 uptill now and we need at least N1.8 million for three days job to hire, grader, tipper, pay loader, excavator and latterat where necessary, as well as gravel where necessary.
“I want to assure you people that your money will be used adequately for the exact things which it is meant for, and I also assure you that all areas of the community will be covered in the road project, and so that it why I want everybody to contribute towards the project.
“We leave any areas, we shall cover everywhere no matter how far or bushy the area is, so the fear that some areas are far does not arise, I assure you, and N400,000 contributed is still intact.
“On the gate project, it was the committee members including myself that levied ourselves and donated for the gate project, and what we are doing right now is that are still paying back little by little the debt we incured during the construction.
After that, whatever money we are are able to realize from this gate will be kept in the community’s account to take care of emergency repairs or damages that we may not necessarily call general meeting to donate for.
“And let me make something very clear to our people, I have said it, we did it for the community, and we are not expecting anything back in return, neither are we going to collect back the money we contributed for the gate.
“I personally, I am promising that I will not use any community fund to run errands for community, and this is what I have been doing since. I have never touched any penny meant for the community to run errands for us, I have been using my own money all along. I have my own work that I am doing.
“On money generated from the gate so far, we disclosed this at the last general meeting of the community that we have realized N42,000 so far and we have used the money to offset part of the debt we are owing the welder from whom we purchased the iron rods.
“Since we have erected the gate, it has assisted us to be able to apprehend many people of shady character, criminal suspects that have been terrorizing the community and we have handed them over to the police while some of them have been charged to court immediately, I must commend the police for this.
“We have also apprehended some people who usually bring women to bath in the mid night at that vicinity, another suspect who usually bring unapproved and adulterated drugs that could be harmful and deadly for human consumption to sell for our people in the community, apart from this, the gate has helped us in checkmating the activities of shady characters and criminals from carrying out their evil deeds in our community.
“All these are apart from generating money for our community and by the time we finish paying our debt on the gate, we shall begin to have savings that will be going to community purse that can be used to meet urgent needs.
“Achievements of the current EXCO under my leadership includes, peace in the community, Security and I can assure you that good roads is my next target, and would not rest until I achieve this.
“So, my appeal once again is that everyone should please cooperate with me and pay up the N5,000 for the road project and if we have any us who can pay more that that, it will be appreciate because we have seen some of us who have paid N10,000 as a way of contributing more to the development of the community.
“And if we have people who can help us more by volunteering to give us loads of gravel, latterat, or even help us to grade any parts of our road, it will be appreciated, I want to use this opportunity to thanks Mr Ariyo who has once done the grading of our roads single-handedly for us for free.
“I have heard that some people intentionally did not want to contribute the money for the road because they believed that it could be embezzled, I want you all to trust me, as I am assuring you that non of your Kobo or penny can be embezzled as far as I am still the chairman of the community.
“I am ready to be taking to anywhere including EFCC if any of your money ever gets missing during my tenure, I have been in charge of the electricity in this community and it was successfull and i purchased our transformer.
“I did everything with transparency then. Now, we are currently using in the transformer in the community without any of your Kobo missing. So also you should trust me on this one also, I plead!!!.
“I also want to thanks Governor Oyebanji for helping us to dredge our river, because if not for him, everyone of us know how this bridge used to overflow and would not allow us to go out or come into the community every year whenever it overflow in times like this.
“so that is why I think we should appreciate him for this and we are still asking that government should please hasten up on road that it promised to help us grade from the junction to lead to the other side of Afao road as soon as we enter dry season because nobody can construct road during raining season. The government made the promise to us when we complained about the place where they usually dump the waste in our community.” He added.
The Emirin community Chairman however disclosed that his team will soon be going round to collect the money for the road project, adding that “people should please cooperate with the the team and pay up so that all areas of the community can be covered whenever we start the road project as soon as the dry season comes”.
Mr. Babalola equally promised to be briefing the people of the community quarterly on situation of things regarding the development of the of community through this medium for the purpose of clearity, and transparency.