The Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode on Sunday approved the appointment of Mr. Hakeem Olayinka Muri-Okunola as the 21st Head of Service (HOS) in the State.
A statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Habib Aruna, said Mr. Okunola’s appointment follows the statutory retirement of Mrs. Folasade Sidikatu Adesoye on December 27, 2018.
Mr. Muri-Okunola was appointed as The Executive Secretary, Land Use and Allocation Committee (LUAC), a position he held between 2005 – 2011.
Until his appointment, he was the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth and Social Development.
Governor Ambode thanked the outgoing HOS, Mrs. Adesoye for her meritorious service to the State and wished her well in her future endeavours.
Meanwhile, the Governor has also appointed six new Permanent Secretaries. They include Dr. (Mrs) Goncalves Titilayo Fausat; Mr. Kosoko Hakeem Adeyemi; Dr. (Mrs) Balogun Sherifat Bolajoko; Mr. Adeniji Segun Olufemi; Mrs. Adelaja Abosede Omobolanle and Dr. Lawal Lateef Temidayo.
The New Head of Service and the Permanent Secretaries would be sworn in on Monday, December 31, 2018 at the Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja.
Relatively young Hakeem joined the state civil service in 2001, at the age of 29 when he was appointed as the company secretary/legal adviser of Ibile Holdings.
After 2 years in that position, HMO who is the eldest son of the late Justice Muritala-Okunola, was appointed as the PA to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the then Executive Governor of Lagos State at the age of 31 years.
Raising steadily in the service like an helium filled balloon, HMO at age 33 was appointed the Executive Secretary to the Governor, Land Use and Allocation Committee, a very lucrative position, taking over from the now Senator Gbenga Ashafa who had moved on to become the Permanent Secretary Land Bureau; 6 years afterwards in 2011 at age 39, he again took over from the same Gbenga Ashafa, as the Permanent Secretary, Lands Bureau, under the Babatunde Raji Fashola administration.
It was from this position which he held till August 4, 2015, that he was redeployed and transferred to the Youths and Sports Ministry in Lagos State as the Permanent Secretary by the Akinwunmi Ambode administration.
Born in January 1972, HMO will be celebrating his 47 birthday as probably the youngest Head of Service to be appointed in Lagos State.
He is an alumni of the University of Lagos where he got his Bachelors (LLB) in law and then also Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, where he got his Masters in Business Law. He passed out of the Nigerian Law School in 1995.
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