By Hugo Odiogor, Deputy Political Editor
The Asagba of Asaba, Professor Chike Edozien, will on Wednesday lead a delegation of indigenes of Delta North Senatorial district to the National Assembly to demand for the creation of Anioma State in the Igbo linguistic area of the oil rich state.

The distinguished professor of medicine and monarch is leading the oldest demand for a geopolitical unit that will give the Igbo speaking people on the west of the River Niger, a distinct political identity and sense of belonging in the Nigerian federation.

A statement by the Anioma State Movement in  Asaba, Delta State, said the delegation to the National Assembly will include eminent politicians, businessmen, professionals and traditional rulers from the 9 local government areas in Delta North senatorial district who will meet the President of the Senate Senator David Mark and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole on today in Abuja.

With the National Assembly leadership assuring Nigerians that the creation of state is a component part of the review of the 1999 constitution, those who regard state creation as a veritable model to speed up socio-economic and infrastructural development, have found renewed impetus to push their demands.

The Secretary General of Anioma State movement, Hon. Dan Okenyi, said the delegation will impress upon the National Assembly the need to revisit the 1982 resolution of the second republic National Assembly, which included the area among 14 states that qualified for a referendum in the second republic, before the 1983 military takeover of power and subsequent dismantling of the democratic government by General Muhammadu Buhari.

Hon. Okenyi who was a former Clerk of the House of Assembly in Delta state said Anioma people have been victims of divide and rule tactics and subtle manipulations by forces that have continued to use them as the hewers of wood and drawers of water which has denied Anioma nation its legitimate pursuit for political identity while some of the other requests made along with that of Anioma people has been granted.

Majority of the States listed along with Anioma State in 1982 has become full- fledged states while Anioma people are still being marginalised in the present Delta State. Notable among those states Katsina state created from Kaduna state while Akwa  Ibom emerged from Cross River to satisfy the demand for COR state.

The others are  Anambra State, Ebonyi, State, Abia State, Ekiti from Ondo State, Bayelsa from Rivers State, Edo and  Delta States from the old Bendel state , Taraba state, from old Gongola State. All these exercises took place from 1987 to 1996.

According to Hon. Okenyi,” the Military which has been the only authority that has tackled the thorny issue of creation of states since May 1967, left out Anioma, Katagun, Aba and Njaba states among those listed for referendum in 1982.”   He said the proposed “Anioma State had satisfied all the necessary conditions as laid down in section 1 of the 1999 constitution for the conduct of a referendum in the area of such demand”.

Said Okenyi, the request was subsequently overtaken by the Military takeover of government in 1983, “we are only asking the National Assembly to revisit its 1982 resolution as any Legislative action of a parliamentary session is binding on the succeeding session. We are therefore prevailing on the present National Assembly to complete the legislative action on states creation which their colleagues had started especially in the case of Anioma state”.

Hon. Okenyi said apart from the 1982 Legislative Action, Anioma State was among the seven states that were recommended in the 1994 _1995 National Constitutional Conference which was the basis for the creation of States in 1996 by General Sani Abacha.

He said “I want to also tell the world that Anioma State is economically viable as it has huge reserve of solid minerals, such as kaolin, the largest gas reserve in Ukpai in Ndokwa, as well the potentials for healthy internally generated revenue from having international market at Oko anala and Okwe both on the bank of the River Niger”.

Professor Edozien told Vanguard that “the impetus for this fresh move has come from the majority of the Ibo speaking people on West of River Niger who have been making request for self identity and drive for development in a geopolitical arrangement that show them as a distinct socio-cultural  and political unit.

He said the issue of creation of state is to fasten infrastructural development, but for Anioma people, it is to give them a distinct political identity and a sense of belonging in the Nigerian nation.

The demand for creation of a distinct geo_political entity for the Igbo Speaking people on the West of the Niger was first made in the 1950s by the people of Aboh and Asaba divisions in thre Western regional House of Assembly but this was turned down by the government of the former western region on the grounds that it would embolden the various ethnic nationalities in the country to raise such demands.