Communities disagree with Ekiti government over choice of LCDA headquarters

A meeting to resolve the crisis over the headquarters of Ikole-West local council development area (LCDA) in Ijesa-Isu-Ekiti, Ekiti state, has ended in deadlock.

The state house of assembly had passed the bill seeking to create 19 new LGAs, after which Kayode Fayemi, governor of Ekiti, signed the bill into law on August 6.

Prior to the signing of the bill, the state had said the proposed LGAs are undeveloped, and will, for the time being, operate as LCDAs.

However, seven communities have disagreed with the state government on the choice of Ijesa-Isu-Ekiti as the headquarters of Ikole-west LCDA.

At a meeting held in Ado-Ekiti on Thursday, with representatives of the Ekiti government in attendance, representatives of the seven communities insisted that they were against the choice of Ijesa-Isu-Ekiti as the LCDA headquarters for their area.

Traditional rulers in attendance included Adeniyi Oso of Ijesa-Isu-Ekiti; Adedeji Oluyemi, Olusin of Usin-Ekiti; Olanrewaju Adeyanju, Asaba of Isaba-Ekiti; Adedeji Fagbamila, Olotunja of Ootunja-Ekiti, and Abraham Babalola, Alasin of Asin-Ekiti.

Others are: Oladele Adeyemi, Obaloke of Igbona-Ekiti; Adebayo Awoseyila, Alamo of Ilamo-Ekiti, and the Onikoyi of Ikoyi-Ekiti.

Addressing representatives of the communities that rejected the choice of the headquarters, Olawale Fapohunda, attorney-general of Ekiti and commissioner for justice, appealed for calm.

Fapohunda also said a date would be fixed for the communities to meet with the governor for final resolution of the matter.

Lanre Ayejuyo, spokesperson for the communities, described the request to accept Ijesa-Isu-Ekiti as the LCDA headquarters as “absurd”.

“We can stand on our own. We can stand as autonomous LCDA instead of merging us with Ijesa-Isu-Ekiti, and not only that, even making the community the headquarters, this cannot work,” he said.

“How can seven communities serve under one that is not even on our geographical zone?

“We are just appealing to governor Kayode Fayemi and the chairman, LCDA creation committee, to consider our initial proposal which was defended at the house of assembly, that the headquarters of the council be located at Usin-Ekiti.”

In his remarks, the Obanla of Ijesa-Isu-Ekiti appealed to the seven communities to accept the government’s decision.

According to NAN, the LCDA committee and the communities have agreed to meet with the state governor toward resolving the issue.