2023: Insecurity cannot stop S/East from producing president — Sen Ogba

The recent wave of violence in Ebonyi and other states in the Southeast would not stop the region from producing the next president, Senator Obinna Ogba (PDP, Ebonyi Central), said Tuesday.

Ogba said this while answering questions from newsmen on a motion titled: ‘Incessant Killings in Ebonyi’ which he presented earlier at plenary.

He said no amount of insecurity in the South East will stop the South East from taking its turn at the Presidency.

The lawmaker noted that the crises in other parts of the country had never stopped them from producing the country’s president.

“It is the turn of the South East to produce the next president, nobody is contesting that. No tribe should hide under the guise of insecurity to deny the South East their right.

“There has been war in other parts of the country, it never stopped them. So, this cannot be an excuse to deny us from producing the president of the country,” he said.

Earlier in his motion, Ogba called the attention of his colleagues to the wave of killings, destruction of properties and other vices in the state.

The Senate, in its resolution, condemned the various attacks in Ebonyi State and urged the police and other security agencies to investigate the attacks with a view to arresting and prosecuting the perpetrators.

It also urged the federal government to put appropriate measures in place to forestall further attacks.

Meanwhile, while reacting to the senator’s claim, the Convener, Good Governance Team (GGT), Mr. Tunde Salman, said “the average politicians think of the next election, but statesmen think of next generation”.

“Why politicians may be thinking of the next election, it is our collective, enlightened self-interest to tackle the insecurity and promote national cohesion and reconciliation to resolve perpetual conflicts, generalised violence and crisis of state fragility in the country to guarantee safe environment for the general elections,” Salman said.

On his part, the National Coordinator, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), Comrade Emma Onwubiko, said that the armed insurrection targeted at strategic national security assets located in the South East of Nigeria is coordinated by members of the ‘deep state’ in Abuja.