State Creation: Ohaneze Ad-hoc Committee On State Creation Corrupt, Biased

The Adada State Creation Committee, Enugu State, today in Enugu, quesioned the credibility of the report on creation of additional states in the southeast that was submitted by the Ohaneze Ad-hoc Committee on State Creation, which favoured creation of Aba state rather than Adada state.

It would be recalled that one Mr. Paul Njoku, a member of the committee, in a publication Wednesday, revealed that the committee favoured the creation of Aba state.

In a swift reaction, the secretary of the Adada State Creation Committee, Enugu State, Chief James Ugwu, accused the committee of incompetence, corrupt and biased.

According to him, “The assignment given to the OHANAEZE NDIGBO by the Governors’ Forum includes reading through all the documentations emanating from the state creation agitations, such as reports by the Willink Commission of 1957, “Case for ENUGU (WAWA) STATE of 1970 and also from the creation of Old Enugu and Ebonyi states.”

“There is a document written in 1970 and signed by the then leaders of the South East that divided the South East into North and South, equal in size and population. Presently, the Southern Igbo has three states namely: Anambra, Imo and Abia, while the Northern Igbo has only two states: Enugu and Ebonyi.

“One of the reasons why the South East is crying against national imbalance is because we have only five states while other geopolitical zones have 6 and 7 states. In view of the above, will there be justice if Aba state is created thereby making the Southern Igbos four states and leaving the Northern Igbos with only two states?

“Paul also talked about economic viability of Aba and the land mass. You will notice that Adada has more land mass than Aba. It is also laughable to hear my friend saying that Aba has more manpower and educational institutions than Adada which has been housing the first indigenous and prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

“You may again need to know that we have a lot of natural resources such as oil and mineral deposits untapped. In terms of local government areas, the arbitrariness in local government creation is what denied the Nsukka district headquarters from giving birth to up to six LGAs. It is the only local government district headquarters that is not a state capital in Nigeria. It is also the largest local government area in Nigeria today.”

Ugwu said during submission of documents to the Ohaneze committee, the Adada team had intimated the Ohaneze Committee that a decision had earlier been taken on the first choice of the South East on state creation.

“We had referred the Committee to a 10-man committee of Senators and House of Representatives mandated by the Southeast caucus of the NASS after a meeting of political leaders, past and present governors, political appointees, leaders of Ohaneze Ndigbo, leaders of thought and other opinion leaders in South East to select the most qualified state out of all the agitations from South East.

“This Committee, after scrutinizing the entire documents, decided to go it democratically by voting amongst themselves. The result of the vote was as follows: Adada, 5; Orashi, 3; Aba, 2, and Njiaba, 0.”

Ugwu said following the result of this vote, the Southeast had made her first choice clear, adding, “Therefore, the first choice state to be created from South East is Adada State. It is important to note that until another round of a similar meeting mentioned above is convened and voting by NASS members of South East extraction, Adada State remains the first choice of the entire South East.”

He described the report as a scandal and disclosed the matter had been reported to through a petition to the Office of the President -General of Ohaneze Ndigbo.

He said the right person to have received the report is the President General of Ohaneze, who in turn, would have sent the report to the Governors’ Forum on receipt and review of such report from the ad-hoc Committee on State Creation.

He reiterated that, “No state creation request from the South East can be more qualified than Adada State. Adada met all the requirements as contained in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Part 1(1) (2) of the Creation of State and Boundary Adjustment (procedure) Act Cap.C37 LFN 2004.

“All the National and States Assemblies members, Elected LG chairmen and councilors from the proposed Adada State signed. Leaders of the traditional rulers all endorsed the document of request, even though the endorsement is not a condition precedent.”

“If the ad-hoc Committee or the Ohaneze Ndigbo had any reason to change the earlier decision reached by the leadership of the South East, they have to reconvene another meeting of south east leaders.

“Until that is done and another vote cast, Adada State remains the first choice state for creation from the South East.”