A group known as the Sunshine Liberation Front, SLF, has kicked against proposed moves by the Governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, to create Local Government Development Areas, LCDAs in the state.
The group, in a statement issued on Wednesday in Akure, the Ondo State capital, described the governor’s decision as dead on arrival, pointing out that the motive behind the move was to score “cheap” political points which is not in the interest of the state.
In the statement signed by the spokesperson of the group, Akinyele Akinwale, SLF stated that residents of the state demand explanation on why the local government election which had earlier been scheduled, did not hold despite budgetary allocation and sales of nomination forms to candidates.
Akinyele maintained that the 18 local government councils in the state currently lack the financial strength of taking charge of their constitutional responsibility at the grassroots as they are being starved of funds by the state.
The statement reads: “Sunshine Liberation Front (SLF), a nonpartisan group projecting and promoting the welfare, well-being and interests of the good people of Ondo State, rejects the proposed plan by the governor of the state, Arakunrin ‘Rotimi Akeredolu, to create Local Council Development Area (LCDAs).
“The proposal, viewed by all political watchers as politics taken too far, is coming few months after Arakunrin Akeredolu and his government failed to conduct the council polls slated for December 1st, 2018 and a total of #2billion was earmarked for in the 2018 Appropriation Bill signed into law by the governor. Would the governor now abandon the elections that the prospective candidates had parted with huge funds in mobilizing their supporters and getting nomination forms?
“This is a plot by the governor and his advisers to curry more political favour, score cheap points and share our limited funds amidst his party faithfuls at the expense of suffering Ondo state indigenes. Isn’t it incredible and mischievous that the state governor, who has continued to abandon and starve Local Councils of funds and deny them of autonomy for several years, now remembers to create LCDAs out of them? Would these LCDAs not be given same treatment by the current government and the subsequent ones?
“SLF, therefore, will not look away while our political system, which should benefit the ordinary people, be rendered powerless to compensate a few, who worked and will be ready to work for their own political goals.
“The group rejects, in totality, the unreasonable plan by Arakunrin Akeredolu to create LCDAs while our legally recognized local councils, under the illegal chairmanship of committee caretakers, remain underfunded and largely unrecognized,” the statement read.
On Monday, Gov Akeredolu had announced his decision to create LCDAs in the state to complement the existing 18 Local Government Councils.
The Governor made the disclosure in Irele, the headquarters of Irele Local Government during a thank-you tour across the local government areas of the state on the emergence of candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who secured majority of the state House of Assembly seats.
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