Kunle Adelabu
Ikorodu West Local Council Development Area (LCDA) Councilors have revealed that the genesis of their disagreement with the embattled Council Chairman, Hon. (Princess) Jumoke Jimbo – Ademehin, was her failure to fulfil the agreement they had with her before assumption of office.
They disclosed this during a discourse on THE IMPACT WhatsApp platform on Sunday evening during which they alleged that Hon Ademehin reneged on the agreement reached over the execution of one project in each of the five political Wards in the Council.
The chat session was, however, inconclusive as the two of the Councilors, Hon Tejumaye Adeyanju Julius, the Deputy Leader and Hon Adebowale Kalejaiye, Majority Leader) who spoke from their respective abodes in exile on behalf of colleagues, went off air and were unreachable.
The crisis between Hon Ademehin and members of the legislative arm turned sour about a weeks ago when the lawmakers impeached the Chairman for alleged gross misconduct and abuse of office.
Every attempt by the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the State and Local government levels have so far proved abortive.
Hon Tejumaye, while responding to question on the genesis of the crisis, stated that it all started shortly after they assumed office in 2017 when the Chairman reneged on the agreement to execute one project in each of the five Wards in the Council.
“The issue had been on shortly when we assumed office in 2017 as the Executive Chairman refused to execute projects in our various wards against the backdrop of our agreements with her at various meetings in her constituency office. These meetings came up after we all secured the Party tickets”, he stated.
“At these meetings, we had in attendance all the five party councillorship candidates, the Vice chairmanship candidate and the Chairmanship candidate.
“Also at these meetings, Hon Ademehin suggested that she would make provision for #500,000.00 naira at #100,000.00 naira per ward for project execution every month. We all objected against this idea that the said amount can’t do anything and as such may turn out to be a waste of resources.
“Therefore, rather than sharing the N500, 000 at N100, 000 per ward, we agreed to make it a contribution among ourselves and give the N500, 000 to a particular ward every month so that the money can be enough to execute a tangible project. The Chairman approved of our idea and we all agreed on it”, he recalled.
“But on assuming office, it took us three months to mount pressure on the Chairman to start a project worth of the agreed amount (#500,000.00) for a Ward despite the fact that we are receiving monthly Allocations and Internally Generated Revenues (IGR) on regular basis”, he stated.
“Even after we started the project, what was supposed to go round five Wards within five months (October 2017 to February 2018) took us 10 months (from October 2017 to August 2018)”, he stated disappointedly.
The Deputy Leader stated that efforts to make the embattled council chairman to continue with execution of the projects proved abortive.
“Several efforts were made to see that she continued the aforementioned tangible Wards projects in terms of physical meetings and reminders of all sorts, yet, nothing happened from her end”, he alleged.
While corroborating Hon Tejumaye’s statements, Hon Adebowale Kalejaiye confirmed that Hon. Ademehin’s refusal to execute the agreed project in each of the five wards in the council led to the crisis presently rocking the council.
“It started in 2017 and it has to do with the Chairman’s failure to execute Infrastructural projects as agreed between the Executive Chairman and the Legislators before we were voted in.
“The Executive Chairman, Hon. (Princess) Ganiyat Olajumoke Jimbo-Ademehin, agreed with us that she would be executing projects in all our wards and we have only five (5) wards but when we got to office, the Executive Chairman change her words”, he alleged.
“She told us she can only execute projects worth of One hundred thousand Naira per ward and we asked her what that kind of money can cater for since the types of projects our various wards are agitating for differ, therefore, the amount that she offered will not be enough.
“For example, in my ward (Majidun), a street called Dagbolu requires road construction and evacuation of blocked drainages or alternatively palliative measure at the inception of our administration while other wards were demanding for Drinkable Boreholes Water project. Also, road in Ward D (Ajaguro) required fillings & grading. There is no way N100, 000 could execute any of these projects”, he explained.
He further stated that rather than getting N100, 000 each which would not be enough to execute tangible projects, they (the Councilors) agreed to pool the amount due to them together and use it to execute projects on rotation basis.
“As a result, we then agreed to go on contributions whereby a ward will take N500,000:00 for his ward project while the Council Engineer handles the Cash and supervision. This execution of these projects was supposed to end within five months but it took the chairman ten (10) good month to complete it”.
When asked if the aggrieved Councilors made efforts to meet the chairman to remind her of the agreement and find ways to resolve the issues amicably, he stated that several efforts were made in that regard but that desire results were not achieved.
“Definitely, we did but it proved abortive”
“We had series of meetings with her but all she was telling us was that she had done all she could do at that time. When we discovered that she didn’t want to shift ground, we decided to present matter at the floor of the house and resolutions and reminders were sent to her, yet nothing come out of that”, he recalled.
