A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain in Ondo State, Pastor Olumide Akinrinlola, has pleaded with the state Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu not to create a constitutional crisis in the state by creating the proposed LCDAs.
Recall that the Ondo State Government had proposed the creation of 33 new local council development areas (LCDA) in the state.
The State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Bamidele Ademola-Olateju, had announced that the state executive council approved the proposal at its weekly meeting.
Ondo State currently has 18 statutory local government areas. The proposal, if pased into law by the state legislature, will take the number of local councils in Ondo to 51.
At a public hearing on the proposed creation of the LCDAs held on Thursday at the International Culture and Event Centre in Akure, some monarchs in the state led their people to reject the creation of council alleging marginalisation.
However, the PDP Chieftain, Akinrinlola in a statement in Akure, warned the State government not to create constitutional crisis in their attempt to put a state constituency under another in the name of creating LCDAs in the state.
Akinrinlola explained that any attempt by the Ondo State Government to put the headquarters of the proposed Ikale North LCDA in Igbotako Community with Ode Aye Kingdom as a member will lead to a constitutional crisis in Ondo State.
“Desperate to accord honour and compensate a chieftain of their party, the state government led by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, is proposing the creation of an LCDA with the headquarters in Igbotako town under Okitipupa State Constituency 1 and at the same time subjugating Ode Aye community that is under Okitipupa State Constituency 2, which is bigger in size and population to be under Igbotako, the proposed headquarters of the Ikale North LCDA.
“Isn’t it ridiculous that a government led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria with a competent attorney general doesn’t even know the constitutional implications of putting a state constituency under another one? Even a lay man knows that this is very strange to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“If the state government meant well to create LCDAs in Ondo State, why would they not consider merit in doing so? For example, we have two state constituencies in Okitipupa LGA, they are Okitipupa State Constituency 1 and 2.
” Unfortunately, they proposed two LCDAs in favour of Okitipupa LGA and put the headquarters of the two newly proposed LCDAs in One constituency (Okitipupa State Constituency 1), leaving Okitipupa State Constituency 2 with nothing.
“Funny enough, they didn’t stop there, they went ahead to put Ode Aye, the second biggest community in Okitipupa local government under Igbotako, another community in Okitipupa State constituency 1, without minding the electoral and constitutional crisis this would cause in ondo state.
“Do they mean that Okitipupa State Constituency 2 will now be administered by Okitipupa State Constituency 1? Or why will they put a constituency under another one in the same local government?
“Why is the government attempting to create confusion and constitutional crisis in their desperation to compensate a friend?
“Gov Akeredolu’s LGA in Owo which is not as a big as Okitipupa LGA was divided into five parts. What yardstick did they use that Okitipupa didn’t merit? Okitipupa LGA could have been divided into five parts with Ode Aye and others having an LCDA just like Owo was divided into five parts.
“No one can justify this injustice. We have two constituencies in Okitipupa, how can they create two LCDAs and put all the two in one constituency with the other constituency having nothing?
” How can they also put a community as big as Ode Aye in Okitipupa constituency 2 to be under Igbotako which falls under another constituency in Okitipupa local government? What is the yardstick they used?
“How did they arrive at the creation of Ilutitun and Igbotako, two neigbouring communities less down 180 meters that Ode Aye did not merit? What is the distance of Ilutitun and Igbotako who were both gifted with LCDAs?
“Do they mean I would have to travel to Okitipupa and now head from Okitipupa to Ilutitun and from there to Igbotako before I could collect Certificate of Local Government of Origin. How can anyone explain this injustice?
“If they feel like compensating a chieftain of their party in Igbotako, they should have left Ode Aye alone to remain under Okitipupa LG instead of attempting to create constitutional crisis and confusion in the state.
“More annoying is the fact that the actual proposal for the creation of Ikale North LCDA was submitted by Aye Kingdom and not Igbotako. The evidences were too numerous to mention which show that Aye Kingdom actually proposed the creation of Ikale North LCDA with Ode Aye as the proposed headquarters.
Akinrinlola said ” it is not too late for the state government to make a U-turn now or better still, give Okitipupa LGA additional LCDAs like it did in Owo. It may interest the state government to know that Ode Aye is second to Okitipupa in terms of population and economic viability in the entire Okitipupa LGA. These are facts that could be verified
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