By VICTOR OGUNJE

The people of Ayede Ekiti in Oye Local Government Area of Ekiti State have expressed anger with Governor Kayode Fayemi over the location of Ifesowapo Local Council Development Authority (LCDA) in his Isan Ekiti country home instead of the town with better historical and economic background.

Addressing journalists in Ado Ekiti Monday, the President, Ayede Ekiti Progressives Union, Dr. Ayo Ajayi, said the town felt belittled and degraded with the siting of the LCDA headquarters in Fayemi’s town without considering Ayede Ekiti.

Ajayi appealed to Fayemi to reconsider his position and create a new LCDA for Ayede Ekiti, clarifying that the town was not in any way asking for the removal of the one already sited at Isan Ekiti, but insisted that the governor has to be fair to the aggrieved town as a friendly neighbour.

The bill for the creation of 19 LCDAs was signed into law by Governor Fayemi on August 6, thereby raising the number of local governments in Ekiti to 35.

Reeling out the reasons why Ayede Ekiti was better qualified as LCDA headquarters, Ajayi said the town was headquarters of Ayede district as far back as 1936, which had other component towns like Ijelu, Iyemero, Omu Odo, Ipao Ekiti, Itapaji, Oke Ako and Irele under it.

“Towards the end of Fayemi’s tenure in 2014, the government put the headquarters of Ifesowapo at Bamisile land and named it Bamisile land, Isan Ekiti. The people of Ayede objected to it. Bamisile is not a town, but a piece of land in Ayede.

“Meanwhile, Ayede Ekiti people and majority of the towns had already agreed on the name of the LCDA as Ifesowapo and Ayede Ekiti as the headquarters through the committee set up by the monarchs in that axis when the initial idea of the new LCDAs was mooted.

“Ayede Ekiti is one of the three largest towns in Oye Local Government and the second largest revenue generation town. Ayede Ekiti has historical and economic backgrounds and therefore has the legitimate right to claim to be headquarters of a LCDA where we are the principal stakeholder and largest revenue contributor.

“The current action of relegating Ayede Ekiti to the background is quite provoking,” he said.

When asked whether the town would resort to litigation if the demand is not met, Ajayi said:

“We won’t take government to court. We are not going to protest, carry placards or fight, but we will continue to persuade the governor to accede to our request. We are friends and we will remain that forever,” he said.

Lending his voice to the issue, Chief Kayode Adetifa, the former Chairman of Oye Local Government during the Niyi Adebayo-led government in the state, revealed that in the 1963 census, Isan Ekiti had a population of 4,491, while Ayede had 13,363, which he said gave it a better prospect to be considered for development.

“When Governors Adebayo and Ayodele Fayose were elected in 1999 and 2003 respectively, they didn’t relocate the headquarters of Irepodun/Ifelodun to their towns. But this time, Governor Fayemi used his position to underrate Ayede Ekiti. We are not going to serve under Isan Ekiti. We will prefer to stand alone. Governor Fayemi has not been fair to us, enough is enough. Putting Ayede under Isan is an abomination,” he stated.

Dispelling the feelings that the governor was nepotic with the choice of Isan as headquarters, the Commissioner for Information, Hon. Akin Omole, said the processes leading to the creation of the LCDAs were fair, transparent and justiceable.

“The process was fair and credible. Governor Fayemi did it to improve development at the grassroots. So, I appeal to Ayede Ekiti people to write formally to the government and make their grievances known.

“This is a democracy, constructive engagement with government can resolve so many issues and I advise that they engage the government on this issue,” he said. (THISDAY)

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