Ohanaeze demands new state as don insists on Igbo presidency

The Abia State chapter of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide yesterday asked the Federal Government to create a new state in the South East.

The region has five states – Imo, Abia, Enugu, Anambra, and Ebonyi.

The South West has six states –Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Lagos, Ekiti, and Ondo.

The North East consists of six states –Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe.

Seven states – Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, and Zamfara belong to the North West.

Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, and Plateau states make up North Central.

The South-South has six states – Akwa Ibom, Edo, Delta, Cross River, Rivers, and Bayelsa.

Abia State Chairman of Ohanaeze, Elder Justice Ajuzieogu, who decried the alleged marginalisation of the South East, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to create Aba State.

He claimed that it was agreed at a meeting between Buhari and Igbo caucus in 2017 that the Federal Government would create Aba State from the South East.

He also condemned the failure of the Federal Government to appoint a South Easterner to head any of the major national security outfits.

The group asked the Federal Government to fix all dilapidating roads in the zone to aid the development of the area.

Ohanaeze rested its call for the restructuring of the country to foster a sense of belonging in the country.

Meanwhile, a professor of management at the University of Port Harcourt, Chima Onuoha, has said the government’s failure to rebuild the southeast after the civil war is behind the clamour for a president of Igbo extraction in 2023.

Speaking at the inauguration of the Rivers State chapter of the Southeast for Presidency 2023 Movement (SEFORP2023), he said the region had not been fairly treated since the end of the war and urged Nigerians to see the 60th Independence anniversary of the country as another opportunity to reintegrate the zone.

Onuoha said cries of marginalisation by many South Easterners are justified because the zone has been denied some of the opportunities available to other regions.

The don said the region should liaise with other zones to concede the 2023 presidency to the South East.  (The Guardian)