Again, Lagos Assembly plans public hearing on council administration bill

Invites AG for interpretation of Supreme Court judgment
The Lagos State House of Assembly, yesterday, agreed to conduct another public hearing on a bill that seeks to review the local council administration law of the state.

The House also invited the Attorney-General of the state, Lawal Pedro, for an interpretation of the Supreme Court judgment on financial autonomy for local councils.

The resolutions came at a sitting presided over by Speaker of the House, Dr Mudashiru Obasa.

Obasa said that the review of the local council administration law was not aimed at scrapping the Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) but to further strengthen them.

The Speaker also agreed on the need to work on the formal listing of the LCDAs by the National Assembly.

Chairman of the Committee on Local Government, Sanni Okanlawon, had while reporting on the public hearing earlier conducted by the committee, said that many of the stakeholders invited for the event could not make it.

He attributed the poor attendance to the weather condition of the day just as he prayed the House to approve a second allotted day for the exercise.

Another lawmaker, Ladi Ajomale, who corroborated Okanlawon’s request, said: “A lot of people are saying they do not understand what is going on and maybe the government is trying to wipe some people out of the local council system.

He, however, urged a liaison and better collaboration with the National Assembly with the aim of making the upper legislature understand why the LDCAs should be listed as substantive local councils.

On his part, Desmond Elliot noted that because of the size of Lagos State in terms of population and its economic importance to Nigeria, it is imperative to work for the listing of the LCDAs.