THE people of Ohaozara Local Council Area of Ebonyi State have kicked against their inclusion in the proposed Etiti State following the recent recommendation of the National Conference, headed by Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi, to the Federal Government for the creation of additional states in the country.

  Specifically, the Conference on Thursday, July 3, 2014, approved the recommendation of the Confab Committee on Political Restructuring and Forms of Government for the creation of 18 new states to be added to the existing 36 states in the country.

  Some of the proposed states as read out on the floor by the Deputy Chairman, Ambassador Bolaji Akinyemi, were: Orashi, New Oyo, Etiti, Savanna, Adada, Njaaba/Anim, Apa, Gurara, Ijebu, Ogoja, Kainji, Katagun, Amana, Savannah, Aba and Anioma.

  The conference had during plenary unanimously agreed with the specific recommendation to facilitate the creation of an additional state for the South-East zone to put it at par with other zones of the country.

  The recommendation of the committee, which was amended by the delegates, read: “In the spirit of reconciliation, equity and justice, there shall be created an additional state for the South-East geo-political zone”.

  But in a communique issued at the end of their General Assembly, which held at the council headquarters at Obiozara, the people of Ohaozara frowned at and decried their purported inclusion in the proposed Etiti State, insisting that they would remain in their present place in Ebonyi State.

  The communique signed by 29 members including the Deputy Governor of Ebonyi, Dave Umuahi; a former Minister of Education and now Pro-Chancellor, Ebonyi State University Abakaliki, Dr. Igwe Aja-Nwachukwu and representatives of Ohaozara-West and East constituencies in the Ebonyi House of Assembly, Jerry Onasi, Mrs. Nnenna Choice Nwene and Nze Magnus Eze, has already been transmitted to Governor Martin Elechi and leadership of the National Conference.

  A copy of the communiqué, made available to The Guardian in Abuja at the weekend, has also been sent by the group to the leadership of the South-East delegation, as well as the leader of Ebonyi State delegation to the confab.

  Addressing newsmen on the matter in Abuja at the weekend with some officials of the area, Executive Chairman of Ohaozara Local Council and spokesman of the group, Ogbuefi Enekwachi Akpa, explained that the people were not averse to the creation of additional states for the South-East geopolitical zone or the proposed Etiti State, but that they “are at home in Ebonyi State”.

  He disclosed that the Ohaozara people have vowed to employ every constitutional means, including a referendum, to vote against the purported idea to include them in the proposed Etiti State when the time comes.

  “The reason is not that we do not support the creation of an additional state for the South-East or the said Etiti State, but we contend that we have journeyed so long from Imo to Abia and finally to our promised land Ebonyi State, where we feel very much at home and do not wish to be dragged into any other entity where we may become strangers.

  “We are at home in Ebonyi State and this is because culturally, politically and economically, Ohaozara people are in affinity with their kit and kin of Abakaliki and Afikpo extractions and have nothing in common with the bulk of people in the said proposed Etiti State,” he added.

  The chairman, who kicked against the idea, insisted that the people of the area were ready to employ every constitutional means, including a referendum, to vote against their purported inclusion in the proposed Etiti State when the time comes.


http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/national-news/171694-ohaozara-in-ebonyi-oppose-inclusion-in-proposed-etiti-state

Senator Felix Ogunwale, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Osun State, at the weekend, ,defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC), just as he declared his support for the re-election of Governor Rauf Aregbesola.

Read more at TODAY: http://www.today.ng/politics/osun2014-pdp-chieftain-ogunwale-defects-to-apc/