Governor creates 31 LCDAs, dissolves caretaker committees

Gov. Rauf Aregbesola of Osun, on Tuesday announced the creation of 31 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), in addition to the existing 30 Local Government Areas in the state.

Aregbesola, in a state-wide broadcast in Osogbo, also announced the creation of three Area Councils and Two Administrative offices.

He said the new LCDAs were created based on the request of the people to expand the scope of local government administration and enhance their participation.

"The requests for new councils have been granted; all constitutional requirements have been met and the prescribed procedure followed to the letter.

"The importance of the local government cannot be overstated. It is where the government is designed to be closest to the people," he said.

The governor said the list of the new LCDAs, the administrative offices and their headquarters would be published soon.

According to him, the LCDAs would be administered under the parliamentary system which he described as compact, efficient and better in the present financial circumstances.

"The beauty of this new system is its parliamentary nature, which requires the chairman and the vice chairman to be elected by the councillors from among their own ranks, thereby saving cost.

"In addition, the same number of staff will run all the councils as no new appointments will be made.

"We shall make the most judicious use of our revenues in such a way that increasing the number of councils will least constitute any financial burden," he said.

Aregbesola, said the primary responsibilities of the LCDAs would be sanitation, market management and revenue mobilisation and generation.

The governor also announced the dissolution of the management committees of the 30 local councils and areas.

"The management committees of all the 30 Local Councils and Area offices are hereby dissolved and their Executive Secretaries, Deputy Executive Secretaries, members, Special Advisers and other functionaries removed," he said.

The governor said that in the interim, the local government areas would be administered by Council Managers for three months.

"These managers shall be appointed and deployed by Local Government Service Commission from the substantive grade level 14 officers in the local governments," the governor added.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the State House of Assembly had on May 25, 2015 passed a bill for the creation of the 31 LCDAs.