Following the smooth take-off and effective administration in 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), the Ogun State Government has embarked on sharing of assets and liabilities of existing 20 Local Government Areas among the newly created LCDAs in the state.

The Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr Jide Ojuko revealed this in Abeokuta, saying the step had become necessary to ensure that governance was taken to the grassroots and for the LCDAs to rise to the occasion in the reality of upholding local government administration.

He, however, commended the Asset Sharing Committee set up by government to oversee the distribution of assets among the councils, while receiving the report of the committee headed by the Permanent Secretary Local Government Service Commission, Mr Lateef Owodeyi and other members drawn from other ministries in the state.

The Commissioner noted that the committee was put in place to identify liabilities and assets, evaluate them and share between the respective Local Government Councils and their LCDAs using the number of wards available in each area.

He said: “This would facilitate seamless take-off of the LCDAs having put necessary machinery of government in place to ensure that the dividends of democracy were promptly and evenly delivered to the nooks and crannies of the state.

“Let me commended this committee for a job well done. I am impressed with this report and I'm sure that by this asset sharing, our newly created LCDAs can kick off in earnest having deployed the necessary and human resources to the councils earlier.

“Now they can begin full operation and ensure they do the needful as the Governor has charged them to think out of the box and replicate what is happening at the state level to the Local Government Councils.”

The Commissioner also used the medium to advise council chairmen to make judicious use of whatever asset that accrued to their domains as a starting point for development and an avenue to make life more abundant for their people.

Responding on behalf of the committee, Owodeyi thanked the state government for the opportunity given the members to serve, promising continued monitoring of the process to ensure that the mission of the present administration in rebuilding the state from the grassroots becomes a reality. (Channels TV)

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