Bill to establish Ibadan State and new Oyo State passes Second Reading

The House of Representatives has successfully passed a bill that would establish a new Oyo State and change the name of the current Oyo State to Ibadan State.

Oyo Town would be the capital of the new state, while Ibadan City would continue to be the capital of the renamed Ibadan State, according to the bill, sponsored by Akeem Adeyemi, son of the late Alaafin Adeyemi, and six other lawmakers.

Following its approval in a plenary session on Tuesday, the bill which would require amending the constitution will now be sent to the Constitutional Review Committee for additional legislative review.

The proposed legislation also plans to split the 33 local governments already in place between the two states.

As part of continuous attempts to change the 1999 Constitution, a similar bill was passed last week with the goal of establishing Ogoja State from Cross River in Nigeria’s south-south geopolitical zone.

Since the return to democracy in 1999, not a single new state has been created, despite efforts to do so.