August 15, (THEWILL) – Indigenes and residents of Ilasa-Ekiti on Sunday protest against relocation of Ekiti South East LCDA headquarters from the community to Isaya-Ekiti.
The protesters, who took to the street as early as 8am, barricaded the Ikole-Omuo-Kabba highway leading to Kogi State, leaving hundreds of travellers and motorists (to and from Abuja to Lagos), stranded for several hours
Efforts by a detachment of police led by the Divisional Police Officer of the area to restore normalcy were rebuffed by the visibly angry protesters who insisted on expressing their displeasure against the relocation of the LCDA headquarters.
The protesters, armed with placards bearing various inscription, chanted solidarity songs against the relocation of the newly created local council.
Some of the protesters carried placards with inscriptions such as: “We say no to day light robbery, Ilasa Ekiti must be headquarters of Ekiti South East LCDA, no more no less”, “it is evil and inhuman to change the headquarters of LCDA”, “Changing the headquarters of LCDA to Isaya Ekiti height of insensitivity”, amidst chanting of solidarity songs.
Speaking with newsmen, one of the community leaders, Olowookere Akin, described the LCDA relocation from Ilasa Ekiti to Isaya as a sheer daylight robbery, saying the community was the original headquarters of the local council in 2014 before it was scrapped by the Ayodele Fayose-led administration.
He said Ilasa remained the headquarters of the new LCDA until some powerful forces from the other community tinkered with it.
“I doubted if Governor Fayemi is aware of the tinkering and this is why we felt we should show our displeasure through this protest. Since we can’t have access to him privately, then he will hear our cry through this medium. He must therefore right the wrong by reversing it. If we can’t have the headquarters of the LCDA, then no one will have it”, he added.
National President, Ilasa Development Union, Tajudeen Olutope Ahmed (Esq), insisted that Ilasa had been the natural headquarters of the entire communities in the state constituency 2 made up of the LCDA.
He noted the Isaya community hosting the LCDA headquarters was recently granted autonomy in 2019, adding prior to the time, the community was just part of Kota Ekiti.
“At the draft of the bill for the LCDA, Ilasa Ekiti was the headquarters. We only woke up on the 12th of August read a statement by the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Wale Fapohunda stating that the headquarters is Isaya Ekiti.
“We the people of Ilasa Ekiti in Ekiti East Local Government Area are appalled and devastated to read from the Press Release dated 12th August 2021 issued from the Desk of the Chairman, Local Council Development Area (LCDA) implementation committee, who doubles as the Honourable Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Ekiti State.
“Contrary to what was in the draft copy of the Creation of Additional Local Government Areas in Ekiti State (Second Amendment) Law 2021: No9 of 2021 which was a law meant to amend the Creation of Additional Local Government Area in Ekiti State (Amendment) Law, 2014; the purported Press Release of the Chairman LCDA Implementation Committee made Isaya Ekiti the headquarter of Ekiti South East LCDA.
“We shall resist any attempt to locate the headquarters of both Ekiti East Local Government and Ekiti South East LCDA at Omuo-Ekiti.
“The purported location of Ekiti South East LCDA at Isaya Ekiti amounts to locating both the headquarter of Ekiti East Local Government and Ekiti South East LCDA in the same Omuo Ekiti”, he said.
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