Ogun LCDAs to commence full operations next week

Governor Ibikunle Amosun

The Ogun Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr Jide Ojuko, said on Wednesday that the 37 newly-created Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) across the state would commence full operations next week.

Ojuko disclosed this while defending the 2017 budget proposals of his ministry before the Ogun House of Assembly Committee on Finance and Appropriation in Abeokuta.

The commissioner explained that 30 out of the 37 new LCDAs now had offices, adding that the remaining seven LCDAs were still managing with their parent local government councils.

“We had some challenges but I can assure you that in the next one week, our new LCDAs will take off fully.

“I can also confirm to you that almost all the elected councillors will be sworn on Thursday and I want to also state that some of the communities have provided offices for the LCDAs,” he said.

The commissioner said that the local governments had a total budget of N175million as their total expenditure.

He said that the sum of N125million was earmarked for recurrent expenditure, while N50million would cater for capital expenditure.

“The essence of creating the LCDAs is to ensure that governance is closer to the people and that they are also able to experience the dividends of democracy.

“We need to allow the relationship between the local governments and the state governments to continue to blossom, especially in this recession period,” he said.

Mr Victor Fasanya, the Chairman, House Committee on Education, Science and Technology, urged the ministry to ensure that the councillors were sworn in, so that they could discharge their responsibilities.

Fasanya advised the ministry to ensure that all the LCDAs were provided with their own offices, adding that it was illegal for three LCDAs to operate from the same premises.