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The Chairman Oluyole Local Government Area of Oyo State, Prince Ayodeji Abass Aleshinloye, on Monday said Local Government and Local Council Development Area Chairmen in the state will work closely with the incoming administration of the Governor-elect, Engr. Seyi Makinde, to move the state to a greater height.
Aleshinloye, who was recently elected chairman of Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Oyo State chapter, gave the assurance while addressing journalists at the Oluyole Local Government secretariat, Idi Ayunre, Ibadan after a tour and commissioning of different projects across the council area to commemorate the first year anniversary of his administration as the council boss.
His words: “Nobody can pretend over it that there is a new governor coming in. A new governor is coming in and we don’t even have a choice than to work with him. Both the governor and the chairmen were elected to serve the people, so we a have to work with him.
“Not only working with him, we must also work very closely with him. The mood among my colleagues is such that how do we work harmoniously with the incoming governor and all my colleagues are ready to work with him. We are going to work with him, we are going to support him in any area we can.”
Dispelling the insinuations making the rounds that the chairmen were anxious that the governor-elect may remove them from office once he is sworn in on Wednesday, Aleshinloye said: “No apprehension whatsoever, the period of things like that is over.
“We are talking about eight states where the governors are from different parties from the chairmen, so there is no apprehension at all.
“Now there is no more impunity. I don’t think something like that will happen. Even if they have intention to do that, I think the very best thing to do is to go to court to vacate the judgment that we have.”
Some of the projects commissioned include the 1.2km Agbaje-Adeoyo-Fodacis Road, Orita; two blocks of vocational training centre, Olomi, Academy; 3.6km Tipper Garage-Cele Rainbow- Arapaja-Dump site road and the INEC prototype local government office.
There was also the distribution of empowerment kits to artisans and traders in the local government.
The tour and commissioning was attended by top officials of the council, leaders and executive members of the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) from the state, senatorial and local government levels, community leaders, residents, traditional rulers, religious leaders and leaders of Community Development Areas (CDA).
The state APC chairman, Chief Akin Oke, was also present.