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The Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has advised the opposition Accord party in the state, its leader, former governor Rashidi Ladoja, and other politicians opposed to the proposed creation of Local Council Development Council Areas (LCDAs) to seek redress in the court instead of trying to mislead the public over the issue.
Making the announcement last week, Governor Abiola Ajimobi said the move was simply an implementation of the provision of a law passed by the Oyo State House of Assembly in August, 2002 which legalized the creation of additional 35 LCDAs to the existing 33 councils as a matter of expediency.
The Accord Party, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) as well as notable opposition figures have criticised to proposed creation of the LCDAs, describing it as unnecessary and wasteful.
But reacting to the criticisms, the APC in a statement issued in Ibadan by its Director of Publicity and Strategy, Olawale Sadare, disparaged the critics for embarking on “vigorous campaign against the actualization of the dream aimed at taking governance closer to the people at the grassroots”
The statement reads:
“That former governor Rashidi Ladoja has, by proxy, kicked against this noble idea of additional LCDAs is not surprising since the same character was responsible for the failure to implement the enabling law made in 2002. The public would recall that Ladoja came into office through a flawed election in 2003 as he was made to dislodge the administration of Lam Adesina which had conceived the idea of creating new LCDAs but pull it through the implementation stage for obvious reasons.
“As if confining the implementation process of the Further Amendment of Local Government Bill, 2002 (already gazetted) by the successive Ladoja administration was not enough, the same character could still not hide his hatred for the people 10 years after as he just commissioned his lackeys in the Accord Party to embark on vigorous campaign against the actualization of the dream aimed at taking governance closer to the people at the grassroots.
“We are so much worried about the decision of some uninformed political bigots to pour away the bath water with the baby in their bid to attract undue attention to themselves. This is so because most discerning minds are aware of the fact that present Oyo State was always shortchanged in the scheme of things as far as creation of new state and local government councils was done by the Babangida and Abacha military juntas. Now that another opportunity has presented itself with the present administration ready to do the needful, we expect everyone to support Sen. Ajimobi on this as well as all his people-oriented programmes.
“We would like to encourage all the relevant stakeholders to expedite action on the implementation of the bill as feelers from the public indicate that its endorsement by the present APC government of Sen. Abiola Ajimobi was a step in the right direction. However, we challenge those dissidents who may not be comfortable with the development to employ the legal option and not the usual style of setting the people against the government”.