The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the forthcoming election in Ondo state, Hon. Agboola Ajayi, has maintained that Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa should be blamed for the nullification of the Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) created by former late governor Rotimi Akeredolu.
Ajayi, who stated this while speaking with journalists in Akure, the capital of Ondo state, insisted that the suit would have been unnecessary if Aiyedatiwa had applied a political solution or settled the matter out of Court.
The former deputy governor insisted that Aiyedatiwa should be blamed for allowing the court to nullify the creation of 33 LCDAs created by late Akeredolu, saying it was an error for Aiyedatiwa to allow the court case to go ahead with the case considering the benefits the creation of LCDAs would bring to the people of the state.
The Ondo High Court last Thursday declared the creation of the 33 LCDAs in the state unconstitutional and illegal and nullified all 33 newly created LCDAs.
Justice A.O Adebusoye, in his judgement described the LCDAs, as illegal and unlawful.
But Ajayi said the blame should be laid at the doorsteps of Aiyedatiwa saying “I’m blaming Aiyedatiwa because before they went to court, they must have written several letters to him.
“Even when they were in court, what stopped him from calling to settle out of court? There is nothing bad in that, and that is leadership. Do you know how much money has gone into that ? The hope of the people has been dashed.
“The governor should have intervened, reconciled, and addressed the injustice that people must have raised as regards the creation of LCDAs.
“There is no doubt that LCDAs will bring rapid development to the people and the grassroots”
He said “I still maintain what I said by blaming Governor Aiyedatiwa for the judgement and the aftermath of that creation.
“Government is a serious business. Once you inherit an asset from the government, you must also inherit the liability of whatever it is from that government”
Speaking on the fundamental objectives for the establishment of the third tier of government, he said “I was a former local government chairman. I served as a former supervising counsellor, chairman of the of the caretaker committee, and elected chairman. If you put this together with the local government, my experience there is about eight years.
I also served as deputy governor, where I supervised the local government chairman, so I have more experience than Aiyedatiwa in that regard.
Not only that, I appreciate and understand what the local government administration can do for the people in rural areas. So, we must take local government administration very seriously. That is the closest government to the people, and we must nurture it.
“You need to see and feel the news and the zeal that came with that creation at that time. We can’t have a perfect system for everything we are doing. When those LCDAs were created, the late governor was abroad on medical leave.
“Akoko has the right to protest that there was no equitable distribution in the creation of the LCDAs. These are normal, legitimate protests.
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“But it is now the duty of the government to look into their grievances and complaints. We don’t need to throw the baby away with the birth water. That is only the area in which I oppose that it is wrong”
But reacting, the Aiyedatiwa Campaign Council in a statement by its State Director of Information, Mr. Kayode Fasua, said Ajayi has every right to express his opinion but called on all stakeholders to ignore Ajayi.
He urged the people of the state remain calm and await the state government decision on the matter as the state is currently studying the judgement.
“As for us in the APC under the leadership of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, we have been preaching peace and our supporters have keyed in, and this is expected from our ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ in other political parties,”