Do you have any proof, links or anything? I have talked to someone who grew up there until he was 10 and he said the correct pronunciation was LAY-la. Of course it could be that he remembers it wrong but he is still fluent.
Looking online I only found
Leyla, being a variant of
Leila which then is a variant of
Layla (at least according to this site) and it said everywhere that
Leyla is LAY-la.