Lagos PDP To Create 77 LGs

Jamiu Yisa

The Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has declared it will create 77 local councils once the party is voted into office in 2015, adding that it would contest future elections into the 37 Local Council Development Areas in the state.

The state Chairman of the party, Captain Tunji Shelle, who made the declaration when he met with the PDP exco members at the party secretariat, said the decision to participate in the LCDA elections has to do with the party’s resolve to win Lagos in 2015 elections.

The party had boycotted elections into the LCDAs in the past, because it had always insisted that they were not recognised under the constitution, but participated in the 2011 council poll.

His words: “as a matter of fact, we have a 77-council template for Lagos State. By God’s grace, we shall win Lagos State and lobby the National Assembly to recognise the councils as listed.”

He further stated that “the creation of the PDP LCDA officials is now a confirmation that the Lagos State PDP has recognised the existence of LCDA structures. As part of our plans to win the state in 2015, it is unavoidable to participate in identifying the LCDA structures.

“The political expediency in the state dictates that we must also devolve our mobilisation to the LCDAs. The All Progressives Congress (APC) can no longer blackmail us that we are against the creation of more councils in the state.

“We have always supported constitutionalism. We stand for rule of law and not self-help.”

Shelle decried what he termed “the current misapplied posture of the state government, describing it as “self-serving, arrogant and, indeed, counter-productive.”