By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Sunday asked former Governor Rashidi Ladoja, the Accord Party and others opposed to the planned creation of 35 Local Council Development Councils (LCDCs) in Oyo State to seek redress in the court of law rather than misleading the public.
APC in a statement by its Director of Publicity and Strategy in Oyo State, Comrade Olawale Sadare made available to newsmen in Ibadan insisted that the planned creation of the 35 LCDCs was an implementation of the long existing law on the creation of Local Council Development Councils in the State.
The party stressed that the Governor Ajimobi led
administration was only implementing the provision of a law passed by the Oyo State House of Assembly in August, 2002 which legalized the creation of additional 35 Local Government Areas to the existing 33 as a matter of expediency.
APC in the statement lamented that it was unfortunate “that some individuals or groups would throw decorum into the winds and kick against a people-oriented plan of action which implementation was long overdue after years of neglect”.
The party pointed out “that former Governor Rashidi Ladoja has, by proxy, kicked against this noble idea of additional LCDAs is not surprising since he was responsible for the failure to implement the enabling law made in 2002. The public would recall that Ladoja came into office in 2003 after the administration of Lam Adesina which had conceived the idea of creating new Local Government Councils but pull it through the implementation stage for obvious reasons”.
“We are so much worried about the decision of some uninformed political bigots to pour away the bath water with the baby in their bid to attract undue attention to themselves. This is so because most discerning minds are aware of the fact that the present Oyo State was always shortchanged in the scheme of things as far as creation of new state and local government councils was done by the Babangida and Abacha military juntas. Now that another opportunity has presented itself with the present administration ready to do the needful, we expect everyone to support Sen. Ajimobi on this as well as all his people-oriented programmes,” it said.
APC quickly added that “on the hand, we would like to encourage all the relevant stakeholders to expedite action on the implementation of the bill as feelers from the public indicate that its endorsement by the present APC government of Sen. Abiola Ajimobi was a step in the right direction”.
“However, we challenge those dissidents who may not be comfortable with the development to employ the legal option and not the usual style of setting the people against the government”.
