The Commissioner for the Lagos State Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, Tolani Alli-Balogun, has said the state government will be paying N1.5bn to register 58,000 students for the 2024 West African Senior School Certificate Examination for this year.

The commissioner said this on Thursday while reporting the activities of the ministry in commemoration of the first year of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in office for the second term of his administration.

Sanwo-Olu took the oath of office for his second term as governor on May 29, 2023, promising in his inaugural speech not to let down Lagosians.

The commissioner, who spoke at the state secretariat, said, “The administration of Babajide Sanwo-Olu has never defaulted on the payment of WASCCE fees of all public school SS3 students in the four years of Governor Sanwo-Olus’s first term in office. The state government paid over N4.2bn between 2020 and 2023 to keep our promise of full payment of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination fees.

“In the current school year (2024), the governor has approved the sum of N1,571,076,000 as registration fees and other cost for 58,188 SS3 students writing the West African Senior School Certificate Examination.”

Last year, the West African Examination Council, which conducts WASSCE, noted that it had concluded plans to begin computer-based examinations in 2024.

It released the results of the first-ever CBT exam, 2024–First Series, in March this year.

The analysis of candidates’ performance showed that out of the 8,139 candidates that sat the examination, 3,424 candidates representing 42.07 per cent obtained credit and above in a minimum of five subjects (with or without English Language and/or Mathematics).

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State said on Thursday that civil servants in the state have been receiving N70,000 minimum wage since January.

Sanwo-Olu said his administration has been paying workers an additional N35,000 wage allowance since January.

Speaking at a function on Thursday, the governor assured workers that his administration would soon dole out a new minimum wage scheme.

He said: “The civil servants and all public officers in Lagos know that since January, we have continued to pay the wage allowance of a minimum of N35,000 over and above what they were earning before.

“What this means is that people that are earning a minimum of N35,000 or more before are now earning over N70,000. That is what they have been enjoying since January.

“So it is important for people to know that we make these things very clear and that this government has doubled up to ensure that at this difficult time, it has not left the citizens on their own.”

Sanwo-Olu also disclosed that his administration will distribute food items to 500,000 households in the state through unions and local governments.

Speaking on the ‘Ounje Eko’ Initiative, where food items are sold at discounted prices, Sanwo-Olu said: “We created 59 makeshift markets outside of the regular markets out of our 57 local government and local council development areas and made it Sunday-Sunday market.”

No fewer than three people, including a mother and child, were reportedly electrocuted at Mowe Market in Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State.

The incident reportedly happened on Monday following the restoration of power after the Sunday downpour.

The Chairman of the Local Government, Ambassador Adesina Ogunsola, during his visit to the market on Wednesday gave a seven-day notice to all the traders with shops and stalls under the high-tension powerline to vacate to forestall the recurrence of the tragic incident.

An eyewitness said that the electric shock was from the step-down transformer suspended on an electrical pole next to the shop where the incident happened, just as the shop owners arrived for their daily sales in the market.

The woman and her son were said to have been burnt beyond recognition.

The Director of Information at the Obafemi Owode Local Government, Segun Soneye, confirmed the incident to our Correspondent on Thursday

Soneye, in a statement, blamed the incident on the erection of shops made of iron under the powerline by the traders.

He said, “The chairman of the council had visited the affected shop owners and commiserated with them over the incident.

“The LG boss has already given shop owners a seven-day ultimatum to evacuate their make-shift shops built under the high tension powerline to forestall the recurrence of the incident.”

Speaking during his visit to the market, Ogunsola who commiserated with the families of the victims, also blamed the incident on the nonchalant attitude of the.

The LG boss wondered why people would disregard safety rules and have their shops close to electrical poles that carry step-down transformers.

Ogunsola, while giving the vacation order to the traders with shops and stalls under the powerline, said, “Let me also say that everyone that has extended its shop beyond where it should be, particularly those under high-tension cables should start removing it from today.”

The police spokesman, Omolola Odutola, also confirmed the incident but said only the mother, Ujuwa Okechukwu, died from the incident.