24th August, 2016
The Oyo State government on Tuesday disclosed that it would implement the 2002 gazetted law creating 35 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) out of the existing 33 local government areas in the state.
The government, in a statement signed by the Commissioner for Information, Tourism and Culture, Toye Arulogun, said the move was 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.
The state House of Assembly had during its sitting on Thursday, June 16, 2016, discussed a motion on the creation of LCDAs.
The Chief of Staff to the Governor, Dr Gbade Ojo, said 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, deliberated on a motion titled: Need to Establish Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) for effective grassroots 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. 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,” he stated.
He said that the resolution of the House was extensively discussed at the weekly executive council meeting and ratified by members, adding that thirty-five LCDAs would be created in line with political and zonal administrative structure of the State. This includes fourteen (14) LCDAs to Ibadan zone, two (2) to Ibarapa zone, four (4) to Oyo zone, seven (7) to Ogbomoso zone and eight (8) to Oke-ogun zone.
Ojo added that the Ministry of Justice had 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 administration.