Lagos State governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Monday, sworn in Mr Ope George and Dr Oluwarotimi Fashola as Special Advisers on Public-Private Partnerships and Agriculture (Rice Mill Initiative) respectively.
Sanwo-Olu also signed three bills into law during the weekly State Executive Council meeting at the Executive Chamber in Lagos House, Ikeja.
The three bills were – Law Regulating the Real Estate Transactions in Lagos State; Law to Provide for the Registration of Cooperative Societies in Lagos State; and Law to Regulate Ownership, Licensing and Sales of Pets and to Prohibit and Restrict People from Having in Custody Dangerous Animals in Public Places.
Speaking about his new advisers, Governor Sanwo-Olu said George and Fashola were coming into the State Executive Council with a lot of experience in Public and Private Partnership and Agriculture to add value to the system and, therefore, wished them the very best in their new assignments.
“We believe this addition to our cabinet will further strengthen our ability to deliver all that we promised our citizens because we need people in strategic positions. We need people that have sufficient authority to be able to dispense their responsibilities,” the governor said.
Governor Sanwo-Olu said the new bills he assented to would strengthen government and citizens’ engagement and relationships, adding that it would ensure that residents of the state continue to live in an atmosphere where the rule of law is enshrined for people and to know what is expected of them.
The governor, who commended the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon Mudashiru Obasa, and the state lawmakers for seeing the need to pass the bills into laws, said the government would “continue to ensure that our citizens are happy with us and trust is further deepened in government.”
According to Sanwo-Olu, the Law to Regulate the Real Estate Transactions in Lagos State will help to protect the citizens; the unsuspecting Lagosians who fall prey to many real estate professionals, saying the law would also help players in the real estate sector to know what was expected of them and for government to be able to track who was doing what in the sector.
“It is really about ease of doing business and ensuring that we can continue to attract private sector investments into the real estate space.
“We believe this law would be the very first in the country that has taken a deep dive into what is happening in that space and it further strengthens our intervention in housing through the Ministry of Housing,” he said.
The governor said the Law to Provide for the Registration of Cooperative Societies in Lagos State would make it easy to regulate the operations of thousands of cooperative societies in the state for harmonious cooperation.
On the Law Regulating the Ownership, Licensing and Sales of Pets, Prohibiting and Restricting People from having in Custody Dangerous Animals in Public Places, the governor noted that it would further strengthen all the deliverables in the Ministry of Agriculture, especially issues that have to do with pets and animals.