By Omotayo Peters
The Executive Chairman, Ado Central Local Council Development Area(LCDA) in Ekiti State, Augustine Oluwatoyin Ojo, has said that the Internally generated revenue drive of his administration could not be compared to other council areas in the last one year.
Ojo, who disclosed this in an interview with newsmen explained that he met nothing on ground to run the affairs of the LCDA but his determination with the experience gathered in the private sector led to the impactful work he is doing through the internal generated revenue drive of the council.
According to him, efforts has been put in place to improve the internal generated revenue in order to do more for residents of the area noting that it’s geared towards ensuring the council is a pacesetter and role model to emulate.
While charging residents of the area to see payment of taxes to government as part of their civic responsibilities, he warned that defaulters will face the wrath of the law, especially financial institutions and other corporate agencies.
According to him, “I have provided water for the people in Oke Oniyo, I did another in Moferere and Igbeyin and right now, another one is going on in Arowa compound now. At least I have been able to provide water for four major areas in this LCDA.
“Also, I have social investment program for the elderly people in my LCDA for people who are 70 years old and above, I do give them N5000 on monthly basis, they are 25 in number, they were selected randomly across the 4 wards in this LCDA.
“Since inception I have been doing this, I do this personally from my purse. Also we are able to grade all the major roads of the council, it was done this April but if you get there again now you will discover that most of these roads are bad, right now we are planning another grading in this dry season, that is the little we can do for now because paucity of fund is across the board in both federal, state and local governments.
“We have been able to do the little I mentioned earlier on through our internally generated revenue. For the past one week now, we have been moving round trying to sensitise our people to see reason why they should pay their taxes in order to meet the challenges of our people.
“Our IGR will be seemless and technologically driven because right now, close to one million naira has been collected over 8 months ago by some of our officers and paid into the coffers of the government. Workers here have been supportive and I really appreciate them.
“It is not easy to get to where we are today. If you look at the 19 LCDAs created in Ekiti, no one among them can match our accomplishments.”
