A pan-Igbo social and cultural organisation, the Ndi Asuu Bia Social Cultural Organisation, has called on the Senate to grant approval for the creation of Anioma State out of the present Delta State.

This was a sequel to spirited efforts by the Senator representing Delta North, Ned Nwoko, who has garnered the signatures of over 80 of his serving colleagues in support of this course.

In a four-page memo to the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, the group argued that creating the state would, among other things, address years of agitations by Ndigbo for the creation of an additional state to end the imbalance which currently exists in the Nigerian state.

The group contended that creating Anioma State will help achieve the age-long agitation to reunite with their kith and kin in the Southeast, bring government closer to the people, and eliminate marginalisation.

The memo, signed by the body’s leadership, including Chief Onyenwemadu Kingsley Kainebi (President) Ofochi Benjamin-Atagana, Esq. (Secretary), Chief Cosmas Agada Chikeobi (Chairman, Local Organising Committee), proposes specific areas required to be altered within the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (As amended).

It read in part, “The proposed alterations include Section 3(1) of the Principal Act to be altered by inserting “Anioma” as one of the 37 states in Nigeria, the First Schedule, Part I: State of the Federation to be altered by inserting Anioma State, its Local Government Areas, and Capital City.”

In its explanatory memorandum, the group argued, among other things, that the creation of Anioma State will help address the unfairness and inequity arising from state creations by military juntas.

The Southeast geopolitical zone currently has only five states, whereas other zones have a minimum of six states.

The addition of Anioma State to the Southeast will resolve the current imbalance, achieving equality and justice.

The group also stressed that the acronym “Anioma” was coined from the tribal names of the major Igbo subgroups that currently exist across the region, adding that the agitation for the creation of Anioma State dates back to the First Republic.