August 03, (THEWILL) – Governor Kayode Fayemi on Tuesday forwarded two Bills to the Ekiti State House of Assembly for legislative consideration.
The Bills are: The Creation of Local Government Bill, 2021, and Ekiti State Judiciary (Funds Management) Bill, 2021.
The Creation of Local Government Bill, 2021, is for a law to provide for the creation of new local government areas in Ekiti State and for other related matters.
The Bill seeks to create 19 new local government areas in addition to the existing 16 local government areas in the state as specified in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
The proposed local government areas shall operate for the time being as Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) until such a time as the National Assembly shall pass an act recognising them under Section 8(5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
The new 19 LCDAs in alphabetical order are : Ado Central LCDA, Ado North LCDA, Ado West LCDA, Ajoni LCDA, Araromi LCDA, Ekameta LCDA, Ekiti South East LCDA, Ero LCDA, Gbonyin LCDA, Ifedara LCDA, Ifeloju LCDA, Ifesowopo LCDA, Igbara-Odo/Ogotun LCDA, Ikere West LCDA, Ikole West LCDA, Irede LCDA, Irewolede LCDA, Isokan LCDA and Okemesi/Ido-Ile LCDA
The Creation of Local Government Bill, 2021, is the culmination of a process of consultative and inclusive engagement of various communities in the 16 Local Government Areas of the state.
THEWILL recall that the Governor, had on 16th November 2020, inaugurated the Committee on the Creation of Local Council Development Areas in the state.
The committee consulted extensively over a five-month period and submitted a comprehensive report that took into consideration several issues, including population of each of the proposed LCDAs, availability of personnel, physical structure of proposed headquarters and broadly economic viability of the proposed LCDAs.
In addition, there were several inter-ministerial meetings within the framework of a White Paper Committee that met to review the report and made recommendations on institutional arrangements for the effective functioning of the proposed LCDAs.
The State Executive Council further deliberated extensively on the proposals and resolved that the creation of the new LCDAs is in response to the agitations of the communities affected and that continuing the efficient management of state resources by the Fayemi administration will ensure that the LCDAs are appropriately funded.
In a similar development, the Assembly also on Tuesday, received “The Judiciary (Funds Management) Bill.”
The Bill is to provide for a law for the management of funds of the Ekiti State Judiciary and the repeal of the Ekiti State Fiscal Autonomy for the Judicial Arm of Government Law, No. 8 of 2008 and for other related matters.
Part of the bill read: “The state government proposed this Bill in furtherance of the Memorandum of Action on the Implementation of the Financial Autonomy for the State Judiciary, which was jointly signed, by the Nigeria Governors Forum and the National Judicial Council among others on 20 May, 2021.
“In broad terms, the purpose of this Bill is to grant Ekiti State Judiciary the power to manage its capital and recurrent expenditure in accordance with the provision of Sections 6(5)(a)-(I), 81(3), 121(3) and Item 21(e) of the Third Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and other relevant laws.”
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