By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan.
Oyo State Government has declared its intention to create 35 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) from the existing 33 Local Government Areas in the state.
The Chief of Staff to Governor Abiola Ajimobi, Dr Gbade Ojo stated this in Ibadan while briefing newsmen after the state’s weekly Executive Council meeting at the Head of Service (HoS) Conference Room.
According to Dr Ojo, the planned creation of the 35 LCDAs would be implementing the 2002 gazetted law as well as in response to a correspondence from the Oyo State House of Assembly requesting the Executive arm to create LCDAs in order to facilitate development at the grassroots.
He pointed out that the creation of the LCDAs would hasten development in local communities and bring government closer to the people without incurring additional expenses as workers on government payroll in the existing local governments would be distributed to the LCDAs.
“The sitting of the Oyo State House of Assembly on Thursday 16th June, 2016, the House deliberated on a motion titled: Need to Establish Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) for effective grassroot development. The House assured that creating two or three LCDAs from each of the existing thirty-three Local Government Areas would accelerate even development in the State” he said.
The Chief of Staff added that “the House consequently resolved that the government of Oyo State be urged to take proactive measures to establish Local Council Development Areas, depending on population and landmass, to ensure that development gets to every community in the State”.
Dr Ojo who was with the state’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Seun Abimbola, Commissioner for Information Culture and Tourism, Mr Toye Arulogun, and the Local Government and Chieftaincy Matter Commissioner, Mr Bimbo Kolade, declared that the resolution of the House was extensively discussed at the weekly executive council meeting and ratified by members, saying the 35 LCDAs would be created in line with political and zonal administrative structure of the State.
He gave the breakdown of the planned LCDAs as 14 for Ibadan zone, 2 in Ibarapa zone, 4 for Oyo zone, 7 in Ogbomosho zone and 8 in Oke-ogun zone, adding that the Ministry of Justice has been mandated to present an executive bill to the state House of Assembly to change and implement a law gazzeted by the late Lam Adesina’s administration.
The State’s Attorney General, Barrister Seun Abimbola while speaking said “we are only implementing a law gazetted as far back as 2002 by Lam Adesina’s administration due to intense pressure from all quarters to have even representation in governance and we shall maintain this status until the process gets to the National Assembly for constitutional seal to change the nomenclature from LCDAs to Local Government Areas.”
The Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy, Mr. Bimbo Kolade assured the people of the financial capability of all the thirty-three local governments in the State to be divided into Local Council Development Areas while the names of the LCDAs would soon be announced after the State House of Assembly must have concluded its own part of the process.
Also, the Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr. Toye Arulogun lauded the people of the state for their support and compliance in the renewed Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) drive by the state government, saying, “we received favourable responses last week from the citizens and corporate bodies in Oyo State as our enforcement teams went round for taxes, levies and duties compliance. Although, there were skirmishes in some areas, above all, the exercise so far has been largely successful. We commend the people of Oyo State for their cooperation and also wish to reiterate that we are not out to create hardship for the people but enforce compliance with extant laws.”
