37 LCDAS: Arewa, Igbo Groups To Storm N/Assembly

The Arewa Community and Igbo Coalition Group in Lagos, South West Nigeria have concluded plans to embark on a protest march to the National Assembly over its refusal to enlist the 37 Local Council Development Areas, LCDAs, in the state in the Nigerian constitution.

The groups said the failure of the National Assembly to enlist the LCDAs in the constitution was an infringement upon the rights of the citizens of the areas and vowed to take the protest campaign to nooks and crannies of the country in order to ensure that the Supreme Court judgment on the matter was implemented.

The LCDAs were created by former Governor Bola Ahmed’s administration in 2002 after a referendum, bringing the total number of Local Government Councils in the state to 57.

The groups, while addressing a press conference on the issue, stressed that the National Assembly had failed to live up to its constitutional responsibility by not enlisting the LCDAs in the constitution.

The chairman of the Arewa Community, Ahmed Kabir berated members of the sixth National Assembly for failure to enlist the LCDAs, while urging the incumbent members perform their constitutional function and enlist them.

He said that the state government complied with all the necessary constitutional requirements in creating the LCDAs, emphasising that failure by the National Assembly to enlist them in the Nigerian constitution as required by law had denied residents of the LCDAs  funds from the Federal Account that would be used to improve their living standard and development of the areas.

He stated that the action of the groups was borne out necessity, saying, “we believe we owe the community a duty to embark on this and we have directed all sub-groups to follow suit.

“We call on the National Assembly to immediately swing into action and enlist the 37 new local government as the constitution requires. Failure to do so within the shortest possible time, we shall go to the streets to protest the continuous infringement upon our rights,” kabir warned.

The coordinator of Igbo Coalition Group, Chief Chris Ekwillo corroborated the stand of the Arewa Community, saying all the necessary steps would be taken to ensure that the National Assembly yielded to the demands of Lagosians in enlisting the LCDAs in the constitution.

He said the Arewa and Igbo communities in the state constituted the second largest groups, hence the majority and voice of Lagosians.

“That is why we call on the National Assembly to listen to the clarion call by the majority.  The Arewa and Igbo put together outnumber every other group in the state,” Ekwillo said.

—Kazeem Ugbodaga