The Permanent Secretary, State House, Tijjani Umar at the weekend, led a team of the management staff for an on-the-spot assessment of the current state of facilities in State House, Dodan Barracks, the former seat of government, in Ikoyi, Lagos.
Details of the event were contained in a statement issued on Saturday by the State House Director of Information, Mr Abiodun Oladunjoye.
The facility was the official seat of government business under former military heads of state, including Generals Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Muhammed, Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari, as well as the Supreme Military Headquarters during the Nigerian Civil War.
After the seat of government moved to Abuja in 1992, the State House has maintained a Liaison Office in Lagos, which caters for presidential liaison in the southwest geopolitical zone and also provides protocol and logistical support services for top government functionaries visiting or passing through Lagos.
Speaking at a town hall meeting with the staff in Lagos, the Permanent Secretary said the Presidential facilities in the State House, Dodan Barracks at Ribadu Road, Ikoyi will receive the necessary attention to make them ‘‘active, functional and effective’’, in delivering services.
Noting the strategic importance of the former abode of Nigeria’s heads of state, the Permanent Secretary recounted that in January this year, President Buhari, while returning from a State visit to Ogun State, passed through Dodan Barracks, where he boarded a helicopter to Murtala Muhammed Airport, in Ikeja, Lagos.
He also added that the facility in Lagos also caters for the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), when he visits or passes through Lagos.
‘‘We want to keep this place active, alive and functional as well as make the working environment a bit more conducive for the staff. We cannot fix the entire structure in one day, but we can begin somewhere and see it to completion,’’ he said.
