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Oyo State House of Assembly, on Friday, approved the extension of tenure of the chairmen 33 local government areas and 35 local council development areas by another six months, effective from June 19.
The Assembly’s approval is coming on the heels of a request for the chairmen’s tenure extension by Governor Seyi Makinde and acceptance of a report by the House Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters on activities of the chairmen in the last six months.
In the committee’s report presented by Honourable Ademola Popoola, the Assembly expressed satisfaction on the account of stewardship submitted by the local government chairmen on their activities from January to May.
The report noted that most of the chairmen embarked on various developmental projects, including dredging of rivers, grading of roads, fumigation of local government secretariats, adding that their tenure merited extension for them to do more.
The report however noted that COVID-19 had adversely affected the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of local government areas.
The Assembly urged the chairmen to look for diverse ways to boost their IGR for them to embark on more developmental projects.
Quoting local government law 2001, section 19, sub section 093, the Assembly pointed out that local government administration were meant to seek its approval before embarking on developmental projects.
Contributing, the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Debo Ogundoyin mandated clerk of the Assembly, Ms Felicia Oyediran, to write the state Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters on complying to stated provision of the local government law.