Indications have emerged that the Lagos State House of Assembly may rename the state’s 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) to Administrative Areas.
This is contained in a Bill for a Law to provide for Local Government’s System, Establishment and Administration and to Consolidate All Laws On Local Government Administration and Connected Purposes, which was subjected to a public hearing on Thursday.
The bill specifies that democratically elected local governments will run the local government system.
According to the Bill, the state will have twenty (20) Local Government Areas, as specified in the 1999 Constitution.
The bill follows the financial autonomy recently granted to the country’s 774 local governments by the Supreme Court. The court specified that money would only be released to local governments with democratically elected executive members.
“As from the commencement of this Law, the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) shall conduct elections into the twenty (20) Local Government Councils in the state as recognised by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as altered).
“The twenty (20) Local Government Councils shall have designated Area Administrative Offices as listed in the 1st Schedule to this Law for effective and efficient local government administration in the state.
“Each Local Government Area will have its headquarters in the place names in the third column of Schedule 1 to this Law.
“There shall be thirty-seven (37) Area Administrative Councils in the State with the names specified in Schedule 11 of the Creation of Local Government Areas (Amendment) Law of 2004,” the Bill stated.
It was added that each Local Government’s Administrative Council should be headed by an Area Administrative Secretary, who the Governor subject shall appoint to the confirmation of the House.
The Bill stated further that each Area Administrative Council shall be funded by the Local Government Area under which it falls.
The proposed law, in Section 30, stated that the Governor shall have the right to suspend any Chairman or Vice Chairman or any elected official/political appointee, which it said shall, at the expiration of such suspension, resume office and shall notify the House upon resumption of office.
The law, however, repealed the Local Government Administration Law Ch L89 Laws of Lagos State 2015 and the Local Government Administration (Amendment) Law, 2016.
Stakeholders at the event, including His Royal Majesty, the Ayangburen of Ikorodu, Oba Kabir Shotobi, the Chairman of Odi Olowo/Ojuwoye Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Hon Rasak Ajala, a former commissioner in the state, Hon Oyinlomo Danmole and Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, faulted some aspects of the bill.
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