Ohanaeze threatens to sue Nigerian govt over state creation

Tamarauemi Ebimini

The Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, has threatened to sue the Nigerian government over its failure to create an additional state in the South-east.

The President-General of the Ohanaeze, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, in a statement on Monday, said it is improper that the South-east is the only region in Nigeria with five states.

Mr Iwuanyanwu said the situation has cost the region billions of financial losses and losses in ministerial appointments as well as legislative representations.

“In 2005 and 2014, we raised this issue at various political conferences.

“All men of goodwill at the conference agreed that it was unfair for the South-east to have only five States and recommended that an additional state be created in the South-east but up till today, this has not been done,” he said.

The Ohanaeze leader said he had repeatedly drawn the attention of successive Nigerian governments to the situation in the region, but nothing has been done to address the “injustice” against the South-east.

“This statement should serve as a notice that if no step is taken by the federal government and the National Assembly towards the creation of an additional state in the South-east, I will have no choice than to go to court,” Mr Iwuanyanwu stated.

The Igbo leader also repeated what he has been saying for a while now: that the South-east is being marginalised in Nigeria.

“In the 1999 Constitution as amended, we all endorsed a federal character. Igbos by nature would have preferred the free competitive process rather than a federal character paradigm.

“But we realised that Nigeria is a federation comprising so many ethnic nationalities and as part of our sacrifice towards the unity of Nigeria, we accepted the federal character option but unfortunately, it has been used to manoeuvre the Igbo out of most critical positions in government,” he said.