Ikorodu Council Chairmen Lament Lack of Funds For Infrastructural Development

The Local Government and Local Council Development Areas in the Ikorodu areas of Lagos State have lamented lack of funds, which they said is affecting infrastructural development in the area.

They include Ikorodu Local Government, Ikorodu West LCDA and Igbogbo Baiyeku LCDA.

The Chairmen spoke to newsmen at different times during the oversight function of the House Committee on Local Government and Community Affairs of the Lagos State House of Assembly to the councils on Monday.

The Chairman of Ikorodu West LCDA, Hon. Olajumoke Ademeyin-Jimbo said that efforts were being made to jerk up the revenue of the council in order to meet their infrastructural needs.

Olajumoke said that the council had been trying all it could to do the ones it could do due to its nature, saying that they needed more money to rehabilitate and tar the roads in the communities.

She, however, noted that part of the efforts they had been exerting is the acquisition and allocation of buses to each ward for easy mobility towards the purpose.

“We are in a move to improve our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). So, that is why we have got vehicles that will go ward by ward.

“We have five revenue buses now, with one for each ward so as to generate more revenue.

“Because of the nature of our local government, we are trying to do the ones we can do. Most of our roads are lengthy, so we need more support to get them done.

“We need more money to tar our roads and that is why we decided to be grading them.

“We have approached the state to come to aid on some of these roads and the states have come to offer assistance.” She said.

The Chairman of Ikorodu Local Government, Hon. Wasiu Ayodeji also revealed that challenge of finance is a seious threat to the administration.

“The challenge that is so pressing to us is finance. You know Ikorodu Local Government was divided into six,” Wasiu said.

However, the Chairman of the House Committee on Local Government and Community Affairs, Hon. AbdulSobur Olawale Olayiwola disagreed with the chairmen on the issue of lack of funds, saying that there were enough funds from the federal and state governments into the local governments.

Olayiwola noted that the issue is lack of creative ways of generating funds to help the councils to develop in terms of infrastructure.

The lawmaker said that the local government is surrounded by commercial ventures, saying that though it is an agrarian community, and added that there was need for the Council Chairmen to be re-oriented and enlightened on how to generate funds.

“I don’t know what they mean by paucity of funds. You and I know that there is enough fund coming from the Federal and the state into the local governments.

“What I discovered is that they are not putting efforts into the local administration funds. They are not using their creative ways to generate funds.

“I agree that korodu is an agrarian area, but it is still surrounded by many commercial ventures that they can tap on.

“The leadership of the councils still need to be re-orientated and enlightened on how to generate funds,” he said.

In the same vein, the lawmaker representing Alimosho Constituency 2 in the Assembly, Hon. Kehinde Joseph said that the claims of paucity of funds was not tenable as they had not been able to measure up even with the given allocation.

Kehinde, who disabused the people’s mind on the claim that Ikorodu local government didn’t have enough money prior to the oversight function, questioned what they council chairmen had been using their little allocation for even as most of them were yet to make severance payment to the political office holders would tenure would soon end.

“Before our visitation, I was one of those people that usually believed that Ikorodu did not have money.

“But, sincerely speaking, their level of allocation does not commensurate with what they have done looking at what have been happening since most of them became chairmen over three and a half years ago.

“If they are saying they don’t have enough funds, are they judiciously spending the ones they have collected.

“As you have seen during the visit, virtually none of them has made severance payment as they had been mandated to do for political office holders before the end of their tenure,” Kehinde said.