Ondo State Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, on Tuesday, distributed 14 new utility vehicles to permanent secretaries in the state.

In a speech during the brief exercise at the Government House, Akure, Mr Aiyedatiwa described the event as “symbolic.”

He said the vehicles were meant to aid the permanent secretaries “so as to be more productive and give their best to the civil service.’’

He said that a similar gesture would be extended to four retired permanent secretaries.

He said, “I think 14 of you, the first batch of my permanent secretaries, and I know four of you had retired, but because I appointed them, we will still not deprive them of that entitlement. This is just symbolic to support you and help you to be more productive, move around, do your job with ease, and be more efficient. That is the support that we can give to you as the leaders of the public service in the state, so that you won’t deliver short and you won’t deliver late.’’

The Head of Service, Bayo Philip, thanked the governor for encouraging civil servants with everything humanly possible, to ensure the system kept running smoothly.

Mr Philip said he was happy that the governor was always working round the clock to ensure that the state continued to move forward.

The Permanent Secretary of the state Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Foluke Tunde-Daramola, expressed delight at the governor’s gesture.

Ms Tunde-Daramola described it as part of his agenda of “Our EASE.”.

She also said that the gesture showed the governor as a good father to the state, who wanted everything to be moving smoothly.

“Like you said, you appointed us, and I want to tell you, sir, that we have been very loyal to that appointment and your government. We promise, like the mantra of our HoS, we cannot afford to deliver short, nor deliver late. Rest assured that the mandates you have given to each one of us in our respective MDAs, we will deliver on them,” Ms Tunde-Daramola said. 

(NAN)