Ohanaeze reiterates demand for Orimili State

BY ENYIM ENYIM

ONITSHA-The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has reiterated its demand for the creation of Orimili state out of the present Anambra state.

 At a press briefing by the Ohanaeze committee on state creation headed by the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe, the group said the demand for the new state was to ensure equity, justice and fair play in the south east zone of the country.

Igwe Achebe who spoke at the Women Development Centre, Awka, said it was only the South East that had five states while other geo-political zones had six states each.

He said: “ The six zones that make up Nigeria should be equalised in the number of constituent states. North West has seven states while the rest have six excluding South East with five states only. This is our case for zonal equity,

 ”Within the south east itself, the history of state creation in Nigeria shows that since 1991 when Anambra State was created with Enugu, Abia and Imo states, Anambra has not benefited from any further state creation exercise. In the 1996 state creation exercise, Enugu and Abia contributed one senatorial district each to make up Ebonyi  State leaving Anambra state unaltered.”

The monarch reasoned that the discriminatory and inequitable implications of the structural imbalance had adverse effect on the South East in its entitlements to federal, ministerial, and other appointments, its share on quota basis of judicial, military and civil service.

According to him, the structural disability of the South East seemed a punitive after shock of the civil war, insisting that the region should be given a sixth state as an equitable gesture made without prejudice to any other demands for additional states to be created in the country