Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu at the weekend said his administration would in the next few months create Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in the state.
Akeredolu said the issue of LCDAs was germane to the people of the state and promised to consider it an important matter.
The governor, who dropped the hint while receiving the report of the Committee on Creation of Local Council Development Areas, however, said the government would not create LCDAs which number would be more than necessary.
According to him, the proposed LCDAs were meant to fast track development and bring government closer to the grassroots.
He said his government was determined to make necessary moves that would accelerate all-round development of the people at the grassroots level.
While appreciating members of the committee for a good job done, Akeredolu said he would subject the report to a thorough scrutiny before presenting it at the state executive council meeting for ratification.
The governor said he was aware that the task the committee undertook was not the easiest anybody could do because of the seriousness the people attached to the issue of local government creation.
“We will look into this and make sure that in few months, we create the LCDAs. It’s usual we still subject it to scrutiny before exco looks at it,” he said.
Submitting the report, the chairman of the committee, Lanke Odogiyan, said his team received 94 memoranda requesting for 105 LCDAs.
Odogiyan added that the committee sieved through the huge documents to remove the chaffs from the grains.
Odogiyan said: “After collating the requests and dissecting them, we embarked on a statewide public hearing which afforded sponsors of memos the opportunity to defend and present their memos.”
Describing the tour of the state by the committee as enlightening, Odogiyan said the committee resolved various age-long rivalries between some neighbouring communities which were not in good terms.
The committee chairman said the interest of the people in the exercise manifested in the large number of memoranda submitted by them.
He said the huge crowd that turned out where the committee had public hearing and the calibre of the dignitaries that attended was an eloquent testimony to the yearnings of the people of the state for good governance at the grassroots.
He expressed hope that the governor’s decision to create LCDAs would address failure of governance at the grassroots.
Akeredolu had on March 21, 2019 constituted the committee to take memoranda from communities seeking LCDAs.
