Ekiti State House of Assembly has passed the bill for the creation of three additional Local Council Development Area, (LCDAs) in the state.
The passage followed the adoption of the report of the House Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.
The new additional LCDAs are: Eso Obe, with headquarters at Ikoro-Ekiti, Ikole, with headquarters at Usin-Ekiti and Ayede, with headquarters at Ayede-Ekiti.
The report on the bill titled, A Bill for A Law for the Creation of Three Local Council Development Areas in Ekiti (Amendment) Bill, 2022, was submitted by the Chairman, House Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon Tope Ogunleye.
The Committee recommended that the headquarters of the present Igbara Odo/Ogotun LCDA should be moved from Oke Agbe to Igbara Odo and also urged the government to look at the yearnings of Osi Ekiti people and its environs on the creation of Osi LCDA out of existing Ido Osi Local government.
Also at the plenary, the bill for A Law to Repeal and Re-Enact the Ekiti Polytechnic, Isan-Ekiti,2022 was passed.
The House adopted the report of the House Committee on Education, Science and Technology submitted by its Chairman, Hon Kemi Balogun
Meanwhile, the House at the plenary committed the Ekiti Local Government Administration Bill, 2022 to its Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs for further legislative scrutiny.
Meanwhile the people of Osi-Ekiti in Ido/Osi Local Government Area of Ekiti have pleaded with the State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi to reconsider the town in the additional creation of the Local Council Development Area (LCDA).
The town, under its umbrella body, Osi Progressive Union (OPU) in a letter titled: A Fresh Plea for the Creation of Osi-Ekiti LCDA, was dated Sept. 15 and addressed to the state governor.
The letter was signed by both the National President and Chairman, Home branch of the Union, Messrs Oludare Fadogba and Sola Omowumi.
The state government had in December, 2021 created 20 local council development areas in addition to the existing 16 local government areas and also proposing an additional three LCDAs, hence the plea by the people of Osi-Ekiti for consideration to be among.
“Your Excellency will recall that we made a representation to the committee set up in 2014 on the creation of LCDAs, which came up with a recommendation of Osi-Ekiti as the headquarters of Osi-Ekiti LCDA.
“Unfortunately, the incidence of your departure from office left the issue unsuccessful, but we were rather shocked when the recommendations came out and our Osi-Ekiti LCDA was not recognised.
“But like we have said in our various presentations, Ido/Osi local government, being one created by the merging of two major communities and has been in existence for about 70 years.
“Osi-Ekiti had operated as a District Council and Ido-Ekiti also operated as one before the 1957 Law, which merged the two district councils. In terms of population and size, economy and infrastructure, Osi-Ekiti deserves to have LCDA of its own.
“We have seen lesser communities in history and heritage granted this privilege. For us, we consider this a right we should enjoy, rather than a privilege. Our sense of obligation to posterity will not make us keep quiet on this.
“We therefore appeal again to Your Excellency to look into our case and demand and grant to us Osi-Ekiti LCDA which is in tune with history, tradition, economy and social requirements,” the letter reads.