Some communities in Akure South Local Government Area of Ondo State have petitioned Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu over the headquarters of Akure East Local Council Development Area (LCDA).
The communities including Ijigba, Ijoka, Ilekun, and other sub-communities that formed Akure East LCDA, rejected Oda Township as the headquarters of the council area.
In a letter addressed to Governor Akeredolu by representatives of the communities including Abiodun A. Akinwumi (Ijigba) Abisoye Ojo (Ijoka) Olufemi Tayo (Aaye) Bola Omowumi – (Atipere) Kehinde Olawumi (Afun)Community and Engr. Fagbamigbe Ayodele (Ilekun) asked the government to reconsider the headquarters of Akure LCDA.
Already, the State government has begun the inspection of sites where the headquarters of the newly created 33 Local Council Development Authorities would be situated.
But the communities said the headquarter of the LCDA should be situated along Oda Road beside, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture (Silos) where the Akure South Local Government has lots of office buildings lying fallow for years instead of Oda Township.
The letter read, “We wish to show our deep appreciation to the Government of Ondo state for deeming it fit to create LCDAs in Ondo State in the face of acute economic hardship. It takes only a listening and caring Government to dare all economic odds and forge ahead to give the people their heart desires. Consequently, we reinstate our great appreciation.
“However, we do not frown at the citation of the LCDA headquarters at Oda. From time immemorial, the above-mentioned communities have been harmoniously living with Oda as a sister community, without any ranchor till today. It is our joy that Akure South East LCDA is headquartered in Oda. But the administrative office should be cited along Oda Road beside, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture (Silos) where the Akure South Local Government has lots of office buildings lying fallow for years.
“It is to our greatest surprise, that in the face of economic meltdown, the LCDA will abandon its facility and shops for a rented apartment in Oda. Any amount of money set aside for the take-off of the new LCDA, Akure East should appropriately be expended on office furniture, computer sets, and other office equipment for the Secretariat, rather than using the whole money to rent an accommodation in Oda, which afterward, all the communities will be made to make a financial contribution to the upliftment of the LCDA.
“This we want the Government to re-consider before the commissioning of the headquarters at Oda scheduled for 25th of October, 2023. It does not make any sense at all that we have a facility that can accommodate the LCDA and we abandon it for a rented one. It is economically.”
