2025 council poll won’t hold in 37 LCDAs, says Okanlawon Sanni

Lagos State House of Assembly says elections will not be conducted in the 37 local council development areas (LCDAs) of the state next year.

The Chairman, House Committee on Local Government, Chieftaincy Affairs and Rural Development, Mr Okanlawon Sanni, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos yesterday.

NAN reports that local government elections will hold in the state next year.

Sanni, representing Kosofe Constituency II, said elections into the 37 LCDAs would only be conducted if they were listed through constitutional amendment by the National Assembly.

He said this was due to the recent Supreme Court judgment granting autonomy to the 774 local governments, which the House was obligated to abide by.

The lawmaker said Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) would only conduct chairmanship elections into the 20 local governments in 2025 as recognised by the constitution.

“Lagos State House of Assembly is repealing the Local Government law 2016 to further support the Supreme Court judgment on the financial autonomy granted the 20 local governments in the state.

“If the new bill before the House (Local Government Administration Bill) is passed, the other 37 LCDAs will henceforth be under the supervision of the constitutionally recognised 20 councils.

“The governor will appoint mayors into each LCDA, subject to confirmation by the House of Assembly and they will be funded by the local government under which it falls.

“The assembly is trying to fashion out a way where the parent local governments and LCDAs will work together without the latter being short-changed.

“The functions of the 37 LCDAs will include every duty of a local government in its area of delineation and any duty assigned to it by any law of the House or executive directives of the governor.

“Also, the LCDAs may also employ their workers as it may consider necessary for optimal execution of its development programmes,” he said.

Sanni said salaries, allowances and other benefits of employees and all statutory payments, deductions and payments due for essential local services shall be a first line charge on funds of local governments.

The lawmaker reiterated that the state Assembly had no intention of scrapping  the LCDAs as being portrayed, saying LCDAs had promoted grassroots development.

He, however, said there was need for the National Assembly to understand why the LDCAs should be listed as substantive local governments.

According to him, constitutional listing of the LCDAs is important because of the size of the state in terms of population and its economic importance to Nigeria.

Sanni said Anambra State had 21 local governments and that the Southeastern state could not be compared to Lagos in terms of resources, economic importance and population.