Aregbesola draws flaks over plans for 39 LCDAs

Even as the Osun State struggles under the weight of how to offset over seven months’ salary owed to civil servants in the state and existing local government councils suffer from underfunding, APC’s Governor Rauf Aregbesola plans to add to the financial burden by creating additional 39 local council development areas.

But the PDP chapter in the state has advised him to suspend the plan as the situation on the ground now does not call for creation of new councils, when the existing ones could not make positive impact on the lives of the people at the grassroots, due to underfunding.

The Director of Media and Strategy of the PDP in the state, Mr. Diran Odeyemi, gave this advice in a statement in Osogbo on Sunday.

The statement partly read, “The reality in Osun calls for serious planning because the economy of the state now or even in near future cannot cope with 69 local government councils when the state could not generate fund to develop the existing 30 councils.

“This is a poorly conceived idea lacking the understanding and needs of the people of Osun State while its proposed execution at this time shows that Governor Aregbesola has lost ideas of what is next in the state”, he said.

The last House of Assembly which had all its members from the ruling party had some days before the expiration of its tenure passed a bill establishing 39 additional local development areas. This followed the outcome of a referendum conducted by the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission.

This was preceded by the bill sent to the House by the governor to seek the lawmakers’ approval for the creation of the new council areas.

The PDP stated that rather than taking into consideration the peculiar needs of Osun State and its financial capacity, the governor was busy copying Lagos State’s programmes even when they were not needed in the state.

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