LCDAs: Tejuoso’s kinsmen condemn planned merger

Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun

Governor Ibikunle Amosun has been advised to study the bill passed by the Ogun State House of Assembly on the creation of an additional 37 Local Council Development Areas before signing it into law.

This piece of advice was given by the Oluwo of Oke Ona/Oko, Chief Abayomi Jiboku, during a press conference to register Oke Ona/Orile Oko people’s displeasure over the merging of Orile Oko community with the Remo-North Local Government Area of the state, instead of being merged with their kinsmen in the Obafemi/Owode LGA.

Oba Adedapo Tejuoso is the Osile of Oke Ona, Egba.

The Ogun State House of Assembly had on Thursday, May 5, 2016 passed the amended bill on the creation of 37 LCDAs for the governor’s assent.

But Jiboku, who spoke for the concerned people, decried what he termed “the illogical and illegal merging” of Orile Oko people with the Remo- North LG, adding that “Orile Oko is the homestead of Oke Ona Egba people.”

According to him, a referendum was conducted in 2002 when the then Governor, Chief Olusegun Osoba, created 32 LCDAs, in which Orile Oko people massively voted not to go with Remo.

He noted that the only amendment to the bill passed by the House of Assembly last week was the return of Orile Oko to Remo-North Local Government apart from the inclusion of the newly-created five LCDAs.

Jiboku advised the governor to take a second look at the issue of Orile Oko before signing the bill into law in order to prevent what he termed “unnecessary intra-communal clashes.”

He said, “The Ogun State House of Assembly erred in law when it conducted a public hearing on 32 Local Council Development Areas created by the Local Government (Creation and Transitional Provisions) Law of Ogun State, 2002. The public hearing ought to have been conducted on the five newly-created LCDAs and not on the entire 37 because all due process had been observed in respect of the 32 LCDAs created in 2002.

“Referendum was conducted then in Orile Oko and our people voted “yes” to be merged with Obafemi/Owode Local Government Area. The bill was passed and signed into law by former Governor Osoba in the public view at the June 12 Cultural Centre in August 2002.

“By the result of the referendum conducted in Orile Oko in 2002, no government has the power to obliterate the sovereignty of the people of Orile Oko to be merged with their kith and kin in Obafemi/Owode LG. That referendum is their sovereignty, it is unalterable. It is immutable. It is undeniable. Governor Amosun must uphold the inalienable right of the people.”