Council Parliament Makes Move to Generate Revenue
Tuesday the 7th of August was the sitting of the Ilesa North East Local Council Parliament that was presided over by the Leader of the Parliament Hon. Femi Olowe, in attendance were the Execution chairman of the council, Hon. Oladipo Adeniyi, the Vice Chairman Hon. Mrs. Funmilola Ayoola, the Deputy Leader Hon. Sunday Adekanmi, Hon. Mrs. Elizabeth Adetunji and Hon. Tunde Fagbemi (who later took excuse to attend to urgent medical need).
Under matters of urgent public importance, the Deputy Leader, hon. Sunday Adekanmi asked the house to debate on how to control and generate revenue from the trailer and commercial vehicles using the brewery- Akure express roadside as park. The Vice Chairman, Hon. Mrs. Funmilola Ayoola also asked the council to consider seriously and as a matter of urgence the menace being caused by lorries and long vehicles that parked along Imo-Brewery road while awaiting their turn to load marchandice from the Ilesa International Brewery. The chairman of the council, Hon. Oladipo Adeniyi was advised by the house to act on these two aforementioned and give a feedback to the house at the next plenary. The house appointed the Council Manager, Mr. Okelade Kehinde Ajibola, Hon. Sunday Adekanmi, Hon. Mrs. Funmilola Ayoola and Hon. Elizabeth Adetunji to visit these two sites and also report back to the house by their next sitting.
Another issue also raised is security of life and property in the council and the chairman of the council Hon. Oladipo Adeniyi was advised to double his efforts on whatever he is doing in this regard as some cases of theft and robbery were recently recorded.
Under personal explanation Hon. Funmilola Ayoola noted that since the inauguration of the parliament the council has not generated any money internally and that there are available means open to the council to generate revenue. She referred to registered business centres that dotted the council area like petrol stations, small scale industries processing vegetable oil, gaari, bakeries, local abattoirs, etc. She implored the sitting to mandate the members to compile such avenues under their juridiction and submit same for action but Hon. Sunday Adekanmi wanted the parliament to take caution as this is the time of election and community members and the opposition in particular might misinterpret such action. He therefore asked the sitting to mandate the council’s rate officer to appear at the next sitting of the house to explain what his office has been doing and why there is no record of generated revenue since the inauguration of the present parliament six months ago.
Hon. Mrs. Elizabeth Adetunji insisted that internally she believe that for the past six months the Rate Officers have been operating only there is no recorded generated revenue, she wants the house to call the office to appear before the house and give explanation on their activities and that delaying this act until after the September 22, 2018 election will be tantamount to indulging the Rate Office the more.
The Chairman noted that there are other anomalies in the council that even surpass the IGR in question and that we are already in August and the election is around the corner by September, he therefore implored the house to thread softly for the mean time and wait until after the election for meaningful action devoid of misinterpretation.
The leader of the Parliament, Hon. Femi Olowe though admitted that we are already in the election mood but the parliament can still be involved in some skeletal official way before the election proper. Noting that it is his prayer that the ruling party the APC that produced this parliament shall win and the parliament shallmremain. He wants the house to agree that so much time have been wasted and the parliament is just waking up now to move the council forward. He highlighted a step that can be taken that will not affect the public by inviting the finance department to the next meeting of the house to explain more on the actual situation of the present day position of the council’s IGR. He gave the example of the era of the caretaker committee when a daily record chat of income was pasted on the council’s notice board under the leadership of Hon. Babatunde Fagbemi and this exercise could only be sustained for about three months before it crashed. He lamented that for the last six months of the life of the parliament the council only relied on the allocation coming from the government. He further wants the house to know that there are departments of the council that claim to have thirty-five members of staff but the parliament members don’t see more than five and there is a particular department of the council that lay credence to fifty-five members but only five members are also verifiable. He implored the house to take action and bring out ideas that will help the council to move forward and avoid wallowing in wasteful spending. The house therefore agreed to invite the Head of the Finance department to appear at the chamber by the next meeting.
Hon.Mrs. Elizabeth Adetunji suggested that some amount of money should be voted for the running of the chamber.
The plenary was adjourned till Tuesday the 14th of August, 2018 by a motion moved by Hon. Mrs. Elizabeth Adetunji which was seconded by Hon. Sunday Adekanmi.
See you next week.
Oladimeji Lasore (07035105413) reporting from Imo, Ilesa.
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