By ADEKUNLE WILLIAMS

The Lagos State House of Assembly says that elections will not be conducted in the 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) of the state in 2025.

The Chairman, House Committee on Local Government, Chieftaincy Affairs and Rural Development, Mr Okanlawon Sanni, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Sunday.

NAN reports that LG elections will hold in the state in 2025.

Sanni, representing Kosofe Constituency II, said elections into the 37 LCDAs would only be conducted if they were listed through constitutional amendment by the National Assembly.

He explained that this was due to the recent Supreme Court judgment granting autonomy to the 774 Local Governments, which the House was obligated to abide by.

The lawmaker said the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) would only conduct chairmanship elections into the 20 Local Government Areas (LGA) in 2025 as recognised by the constitution.

?The Lagos State House of Assembly is repealing the Local Government law 2016 to further support the Supreme Court judgment on the financial autonomy granted by the 20 LGAs in the state.

?If the new bill before the House (Local Government Administration Bill) is passed, the other 37 LCDAs will henceforth be under the supervision of the constitutional recognised 20 LGAs.

?The governor of the state will appoint Mayors into each LCDA subject to the confirmation by the State House of Assembly and they will be funded by the LGA under which it falls.

?The Assembly is trying to fashion out a way where the parent LGAs and the LCDAs will work together without the latter being short-changed.

?The functions of the 37 LCDAs will include every duty of a local government in its area of delineation and any duty assigned to it by any law of the House or executive directives of the governor of the state.

?Also, the LCDAs may also employ their staff as it may consider necessary for optimal execution of its development programmes,? he said.

Sanni said salaries, allowances and other benefits of all employees and all statutory payments, deductions and payments due for essential local services shall be a first line charge on funds of LGAs.

The lawmaker reiterated that the state Assembly had no intention of scrapping the LCDAs as being portrayed, saying LCDAs had promoted grassroots development.

He, however, said there was need for the National Assembly to understand why the LDCAs should be listed as substantive local governments.

According to him, constitutional listing of the LCDAs is important because of the size of the state in terms of population and its economic importance to Nigeria.

Sanni said Anambra state has 21 local governments and that the southeastern state could not be compared to Lagos in terms of resources, economic importance and population. (NAN)

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