Ohanaeze Ndigbo Threatens FG Over Creation Of State

Ohanaeze threatens legal action against FG for failing to establish a new state in Southeast

Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, an Igbo sociocultural group, has threatened to challenge the Nigerian federal government for failing to establish a new state in the southeast.

In a recent statement, the organization's president-general, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, stated that it is incorrect that the South-east of Nigeria is the only region with five states.

Iwuanyanwu contends that the situation has cost the area billions of dollars in lost revenue as well as losses in legislative representation and cabinet appointments.

“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 leader of Ohanaeze said that despite his repeated attempts to bring the situation in the region to the notice of successive Nigerian governments, nothing has been done to remedy what he called injustice against the South-east.

“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.