Nwodo re-echoes call for creation of Adada state

•Aba movement makes case for own state

THE former President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, has 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, just as the Aba State Movement has also disclosed that it would lean on Ohanaeze Committee on State Creation on its request for the creation of Aba State.

  This is coming as the Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike has also made similar call for the creation of additional state in the South-east geopolitical zone, stressing that there is no way the zone should continue to have only five states.

  Nwodo made the call in Enugu, venue of the Southeast public hearing on Constitution Review. He noted that geopolitical zone 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.

  According to the former Ohanaeze leader, the demand for the creation of Adada State has come a long way. He recalled how legislators in the zone 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, the chairman, Senate sub-Committee on constitutional review, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, said that no other state in the Southeast 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.

  Governor Wike, had earlier, while receiving members of the Committee in a courtesy call at the Government House, Port Harcourt, called for the creation of additional state in the zone to correct the current imbalance in the six geopolitical zones.

 “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,” he said:

   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, Emmanuel Adaelu, in a statement said: “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,” he added.

   Adaelu explained that the committee’s letter of October 18, 2018, to the Chairman of the South East Governors Forum and Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi was signed by the Committee Chairman, Prof. Chigozie Ogbu and its Secretary, Uche Okwukwu.

  According to Adaelu, the Aba State Movement stood by the Ohanaeze Committee recommendation since all groups agitating for a state in the Southeast fully participated in the Committee’s work by making presentations to it.