New Agodi Gardens will generate over N500m – Ajimobi

Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State on Monday opened the reconstructed Agodi Gardens, saying that it has the potential to generate over N500 million to the state government annually.

The Gardens, now renamed “Agodi Resort and Conferences” is sited on 62 hectares of land in-between the State Government Secretariat and the popular Premier Hotel in the heart of Ibadan.

Governor Ajimobi, while speaking at the ceremony attended by eminent personalities, members of the State Executive Council, students and parents, described the project as a dream come true.

The lighting of Christmas tree in the gardens was also performed at the occasion by legal luminary, Chief (Mrs.) Folake Solanke (SAN).

Ajimobi said that his administration was motivated into embarking on the reconstruction of the gardens in view of its long years of neglect by successive administrations which had left the hitherto popular zoological gardens in a sorry state.

This, according to the governor, led into opening discussions with a private firm at the end of which it was agreed that the reconstruction should be done under a public-private partnership arrangement.

Governor Ajimobi said that the project had transformed from a mere gardens to an ultra-modern resort centre in an ecologically attractive environment, with facilities such as a recreation centre, golf course, chalets, conference centre, zoological garden and an amusement park.

In his address, the Chairman of J. D. Capital, the consultant in charge of the project, Mr. Makin Soyinka said that the reconstruction of the resort centre was a confirmation of the clarity and vision of the Ajimobi administration in the area of infrastructural development and tourism.

This news item originally appeared on guardian news