The Chief Press Secretary to Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, Olawale Rasheed has said that the governor and the leadership of the state House of Assembly have met to resolve issues surrounding the reversal of the state’s name to Osun State from the State of Osun.
He disclosed this while featuring on Channels Television interview programme, Politics Today on Tuesday.
Rasheed said there is a cordial relationship between the state executive and legislative, maintaining that Governor Adeleke’s executive order to revert the state’s name to Osun State remains.
According to him, “the Speaker of the House and the Governor of the state just met; there is a very cordial relationship between the legislative and the executive and in the State of Osun, the executive order is very clear. We are reverting to Osun State, State of the Living Spring and that has been resolved.
“The issue of Osun State and State of Osun has been ongoing for a long time; there is a court process about it, and we don’t want to be drawn into it because we are not the ones that took the State Assembly to the court and to secure the judgment. But the situation of things as of today is that the State Assembly and the executive arm are on the same page on almost all other issues,” Rasheed said.
In his inaugural speech on Sunday, Governor Adeleke ordered a reversal to Osun State from the State of Osun which was adopted by Rauf Aregbesola’s administration.
However, the Osun Assembly hours later countered the move, maintaining that the adoption of the “State of Osun” is “a matter of law”.
“The usage of the state anthem, crest, and the flag is an enactment of the law and as such, its usage is a matter of law and not choice,” the Assembly said in a statement by the Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Publicity Kunle Akande.
“The enactment of ‘state of Osun anthem, crest and flag law, 2012’ assented to on the 18th of December, 2012, contained in Schedule I, II, III, IV, and V, which carefully details every component of this law is not in ambiguity.
“Schedule I is the State Anthem, Schedule II has to do with the State Crest, and Schedule III is the symbolic significance of elements in the Flag.
“Lastly, while we are aware of a court judgment in effect recognising ‘Osun State’, the Assembly, pending the determination and exhaustion of all legal means, would not be drawn into this matter.
“However, the State shall and will continue to be described as the state of the virtuous (Ipinle Omoluabi).”
