A bill seeking to increase the number of local government areas in Lagos State from 20 to 57 has scaled second reading at the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
The bill, which was among the 42 constitutional amendment bills passed by the lawmakers, will upgrade the existing 37 Development Area Councils to full-fledged local government councils.
Being a constitutional amendment, the bill will have to be passed by the two-third of state houses of assembly.
The bill, which scaled second reading during the Wednesday plenary, was sponsored by James Abiodun Faleke (Ikeja Federal Constituency), Babajimi Benson (Ikorodu Federal Constituency), and Enitan Dolapo Badru (Lagos Island I Federal Constituency), alongside 19 other lawmakers.
The billed is titled “A Bill for an Act to Alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) to Accommodate the Thirty-Seven (37) Development Area Councils of Lagos State as Full-Fledged Local Government Areas, Increasing the Total Number of Local Government Areas in the Federation to Eight Hundred and Eleven (811), and for Related Matters (HB. 1498)”.
If passed into law also, it will bring the total number of local governments in Nigeria to 811 from 774.
It will also allow Lagos to officially have the highest number of local governments in Nigeria, surpassing Kano and Katsina states, which currently have 44 and 34 LGAs, respectively.
