The former President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo yesterday drew the attention of the Senate Committee on Constitution Review to the age-long demand for the creation of Adada State in the South-east.
The Aba State Movement has also disclosed that it would lean on the Ohanaeze Committee on State Creation on its request for the creation of Aba State.
This is coming as the Rivers State governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike has also called for the creation of additional state in the South-east geopolitical zone, stressing that there is no way the South-east should continue to have only five states.
According to Nwodo who spoke in Enugu venue of the public hearing on Constitution Review, the South-east has long been marginalised in the distribution of state entities and as such, the creation of an additional state would help give the people a sense of belonging.
He noted that the demand for the creation of Adada State has come a long way, recalling how legislators in the South-east met in 2006 in Imo State where they threw their weight behind the need for the creation of an additional state to be known as Adada.
Responding, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who is the chairman, Senate sub-Committee on constitutional review, said that no other state in the South-east had made a request for the creation of another state and that shows that the demand for Adada State is the collective resolve of all citizens in the zone.
Wike, while earlier receiving members of the Committee in a courtesy call at the Government House, Port Harcourt, also called for the creation of additional state in the South-east to correct the current imbalance in the six geopolitical zones.
He said: “There is no way the Southeast should continue to have only five states. It is very unfair. Since other regions have six states, Southeast should be made to have six states.”
Meanwhile, the Aba State Movement has disclosed that the Ohanaeze Committee on State Creation had recommended the creation of Aba State in the report it submitted to South East Governors Forum more than two years ago.
The leader of the movement, Mr. Emmanuel Adaelu, said in a statement yesterday that: “The report is another pillar that supports our request.
“The Committee considered the merit for the creation of Aba and Adada States, respectively, resolved and recommended for the creation of Aba State, with 12 members supporting, and five abstaining. The Committee also recommended that any other state creation exercise in the South-east should give Adada State priority,” Adaelu explained.
Adaelu added that the committee’s letter of October 18, 2018, to the Chairman of the South East Governors Forum and Ebonyi State Governor, Mr. David Umahi was signed by the Committee Chairman, Prof. Chigozie Ogbu and its Secretary, Mr. Uche Okwukwu.
Adaelu said the Aba State Movement stood by the Ohanaeze Committee recommendation since all groups agitating for a state in the South-east fully participated in the Committee’s work by making presentations to it.