The Osun state governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has signed to law the creation of 31 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), 3 Area Councils and 2 Administrative Offices. Aregbesola made this known earlier today in a series of tweets. According to him,”On June 18, 2012 we inaugurated a committee headed by Prof Mojeed Alabi, a former speaker of the State House of Assembly, to look into the modalities for creating more councils in accordance with the wishes of the people. That committee received 71 memoranda requesting new councils. It wrapped up its assignment and submitted its report on October 26, 2012. In April 2013, we set up a review committee headed by the SSG, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, to look into the Alabi committee’s report.
“After this, we sent the request to the state House of Assembly in form of an executive bill.The House also looked into the bill, set up a committee on it and subsequently, a referendum was held on February 19, 2015 in which the people of the state overwhelmingly gave a yes vote on the bill. After this, the house passed a bill creating 31 new Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), three Area Councils and two Administrative Offices. I have since signed this bill into law. The requests for new councils have been granted. All constitutional requirements have been met and the prescribed procedure followed to the letter.
“The list of the new LCDAs, Area Councils and Administrative Offices, their territories and headquarters will be published soon. The management committees made up of the executive secretaries, deputy executive secretaries, scribes, members and special advisers have acted excellently, astutely managed scarce resources and faithfully served their communities.
“However, financial and other considerations have forced us to adopt a new parliamentary system which is compact, efficient and better,in the present circumstance. The management committees of the 30 Local Councils and Area Office are hereby dissolved and their Executive Secretaries, deputy executive secretaries, members, Special Advisers and other functionaries removed. In the interim, the entire local government system will be managed by Council Managers for three months.These managers shall be appointed and deployed by Local Government Service Commission from among the substantive grade level 14 officers in the local governments.Grade level 15 officers and above at the LGAs should consequently report to the Local Government Service Commission for further briefing.”
