From CLEMENT ADEYI, Osogbo
Indications have emerged that Oyo State House of Assembly has received many memoranda from the aggrieved zones of the state over creation of new 35 local council development areas (LCDA).
The Majority Leader, , Mr. Kehinde Subair, confirmed the receipt of the memoranda during a telephone with Daily Sun in Ibadan yesterday.
According to him, the parliament had received many memoranda from the aggrieved zones, who felt cheated by the distribution of the LCDAs.
Subair, who refused to disclose the number of memoranda submitted so far to the House, however, said all the memoranda have been taken to the office of the Speaker, Mr. Michael Adeyemo, adding that the documents would be handed over to him at the next plenary. But he assured the aggrieved zones that their memoranda would be treated by the lawmakers.
The Local Government (Further) Amendment Bill 2016, which seeks to carve out 35 LCDAs from the existing 33 local government areas of the state was passed into law by the House on September 20, this year. It is currently awaiting the assent of Governor Abiola Ajimobi.
The five political and administrative zones of the state are Ibadan, Ibarapa, Oyo, Ogbomoso and Oke-Ogun. In the distribution, Ibadan, which has 11 local government areas, will get new 14 LCDAs; Ibarapa zone with three local government areas will also get two LCDAs.
Oyo zone, which has four local government areas will get four LCDAs; while Ogbomoso zone with five local government areas will get seven LCDAs.
In the same vein, a total of eight new LCDAs will be carved out from the existing 10 local government areas in Oke-Ogun zone.
A source in the parliament said larger percentage of the memoranda came from Oyo, Ogbomoso, Oke-Ogun and Ibarapa Zones. They are aggrieved that Ibadan has the lion share of the LCDAs and they also want more LCDAs to be created in their zones too.
At the plenary where Local Government (Further) Amendment Bill 2016, was passed into law, the House, had called for memoranda for creation of additional LCDAs from the five zones of the state, peradventure they were aggrieved with current efforts.
Oyo State governor had approved creation of the 35 LCDAs at the state executive council meeting held on Monday August 22, 2016 at the Executive Chambers of the Governor’s Office.
The Chief of Staff to the governor, Dr. Gbade Ojo, said the former governor of the state, the late Alhaji Lam Adesina, who led the state from 1999 to 2003, had gazetted creation of 35 local government areas in the state in 2002, which the incumbent administration changed to LCDAs in order to avoid conflict with the Constitution of Nigeria.
