The call for the creation of additional 24 local government areas in Bayelsa State, which currently has only eight LGAs, have intensified.
This is as a sociocultural pressure group in the Niger Delta region dragged the Federal Government and the National Assembly before a Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, the state capital.
Speaking under the aegis of Supreme Egbesu Assembly SEA, the group demanded swift compliance to the state’s request for more LGA creation.
Speaking to journalists in court on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, the plaintiff in suit number FHC/YNG/CS/64/2026, thorough their lead counsel, Barr.
Ebibenabo Okorodas recalled that between 1999 and 2000, the Bayelsa State government through the state assembly created additional 24 local government areas, a law he said is still with the national assembly till date.
Okorodas said his clients had written a letter to the national assembly to consider creation of additional LGAs to add to the existing 8, which he described as an injustice and aberration to a state that holds the mainstay of the country.
He is praying the court to invoke sections 8, 7 and 6 of the 1999 constitution as amended that provide for the procedures upon which local government areas can be created, noting that one of such criteria is that the state assembly has to sit and consider the creation of local governments.
Once that is done, the lead counsel said, that the state assembly has to transmit same to the national assembly for consideration, adding that the Bayelsa state government has since met that condition.
Okorodas said, “we have written to the national assembly, we expect that the national assembly should honour our letter and discuss it but they didn’t do that.
“So we are here, asking the court to mandate the national assembly to deliberate on what the Bayelsa state government has done and create additional local government areas for Bayelsa state.
“You know Bayelsa is just 8 local government which is the smallest among all the local government in the whole of the federation, and Bayelsa is the father of economic success as far as the country is concerned.
“So we are asking the court to compel the national assembly for the creation of additional 24 local government areas for Bayelsa state.”
On resource control, he argued that true federalism all over the world means each state controls their resources and contribute to the federal government on agreed percentage.
“You cannot come and control my resources and give me what you want. That is the issue,” he said, saying it negates the principles and letters of true federalism.
He added that he is praying the court to expunge section 164 of the Nigerian constitution, which gives enormous power to the central government, to give room for resource control by the federating units.
Okorodas disclosed that he has filed an originating summon against the defendants who are the national assembly, the Attorney General of the Federation and the federal government.
The court presided over by Justice Ayo Emmanuel has adjourned the matter to June 1st, 2026 for the defendants to reply.
Meanwhile, Secretary General of the group, who is also a pioneer president of the Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC) worldwide, Mr. Felix Tuodolo is also praying the court for a Iegislation empowering each state of the federation to control their resources and pay taxes to the central government, which according to them, is the practice of true federalism.
Tuodolo, while speaking to newsmen shortly after the court session said the supreme egbesu assembly has been on the struggle for state creation and resource control many years, maintaining that they decided to consider legal option to drive home their demands as the other way around may spell economic doom for the nation.
