Oni Swears In Ekiti LG Chairmen

The sixteen Ekiti Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidates who were declared winners of the last Saturday's local government elections were sworn in on Monday by Governor Olusegun Oni with a warning not to disappoint the people of  the grassroots yearning for dividends of democracy.
Oni, at the inauguration ceremony of the new council chairmen held at the Adetiloye Hall of the Trade Fair Complex in  Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, charged them to initiate developmental projects in their respective areas of jurisdiction as  the council areas, according to him, lack the needed infrastructures.
He spoke as criticisms continued to trail the conduct of the polls on Monday, which some interest groups believe fell short of basic standards  of election.
The governor also harped on the need for the new council chiefs to devise strategies to widen their revenue base through  improved Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR) promising that his administration would give any council that doubles its IGR in  the next one year with an equivalent of six month IGR.
As a means to monitor the performance of the chairmen and accelerate infrastructural development of the council areas, Oni  revealed a developmental adviser would be appointed in each of the 177 wards as the government is laying a lot of emphasis on  development.     
His words: “We are putting a lot of emphasis on development and I want to implore you to take matters of infrastructural  development of your council areas with all seriousness.
“It is in order to achieve this goal that there is going to be one Development Adviser in each of the 177 wards.  The job of  the advisers would include identification of the needs of their respective wards and monitoring of on-going projects in the  wards.
“You should get down to business immediately and I believe that by tomorrow, the elected councillors must have been  inaugurated so that you can all commence work in earnest”.
Speaking on the just concluded council polls, the governor noted that the people of the State had waited for so long for a  successful transition at the grassroots, adding that the newly sworn in chairmen should compensate the people with  development-oriented programmes for their patience.
The governor warned the chairmen to justify the confidence reposed in them by the electorate whom he noted, waited patiently  to see the council election conducted urging them to implement policies that would better the lots of the people at  the  grassroots.