Stakeholders from the Mbulu Njodo, Mbulu Iyiukwu and Mbulu Owehe communities of Enugu East Local Government Area of Enugu State on Friday raised an alarm over alleged decades of political marginalisation and exclusion from the leadership of the local government council.

In a statement the group alleged that the Nike Uno political bloc had dominated the chairmanship position of the local government since its creation in 1996, to the detriment of other zones in the area.

The stakeholders claimed that despite constituting about 75 per cent of the population of Enugu East LGA, the Mbulu Njodo, Mbulu Iyiukwu and Mbulu Owehe zones had been denied the opportunity to produce a Chairman of the local government for nearly three decades.

The statement signed by their Spokesperson, Chukwuemeka Agbo, partly read: “This press release is to reveal to the good people of Enugu East Local Government Area and to the world the pervasive discrimination, marginalisation and neglect the political zones of Mbulu Njodo, Mbulu Iyiukwu and Mbulu Owehe, that forms about 75 percent population of the council area, have suffered in the hands of the political zone of Nike Uno.

“This wanton abandonment and neglect have seen to it that Nike Uno political zone has perpetuated herself in holding on to and producing the prime leadership of Enugu East Local Government Area by whatever name it is called. At the moment Nike Uno is presiding over the Enugu East Local Government Area by producing the Executive Chairman.”

The group recalled that following the creation of Enugu East LGA in 1996, four geopolitical and administrative zones were created to ensure equitable distribution of political offices, development and services across the council area.

According to the stakeholders, a power-sharing arrangement was later formalised in a pact signed in 2007 by traditional rulers, political leaders and stakeholders from the area, with an agreement that key political positions would rotate among the four development centres.

The statement added: “It was agreed in a pact signed in 2007 by our revered traditional rulers as well as notable leaders of thought and other prominent stakeholders of Nike extraction in Enugu East Local Government Area that political positions will be zoned and rotated in the four development centers that make up Enugu East Local Government Area.”

The group, however, lamented that all Executive Chairmen of the council from 1996 till date had emerged from Nike Uno geopolitical zone.

They listed former chairmen including Cornelius Ogbu, Prince Gilbert Nnaji, Eunice Ugwu, Edward Nnaji, Cyril Mbah, Godwin Odo, Mathias Uchenna Anike, Prince Cornelius Nnaji, Prince Alexander Ugwu, Livinus Anike and the incumbent chairman, Beloved Dan-Anike, all of whom they said are from Nike Uno.

“From the above analysis of the political and administrative appointments and elective positions, it is obvious of the imbalance and deprivation in the sharing formula to the other geopolitical zones,” the statement said.

The stakeholders warned that continued exclusion of the other zones from the council’s leadership could fuel political tension and deepen division in the area.

“Nike Uno has produced all the prime leadership of Enugu East Local Government Area and this aberration and injustice should not continue because it is an ill wind that has introduced political crisis and bred unrest, suspicion, and acrimony amongst various groups in the geopolitical zones.

“Nikeland has in the past enjoyed harmonious coexistence and sharing common socio-cultural affinity and brotherhood. It has become imperative that the present imbalance which is a time bomb be done away forthwith, even as another cycle of elections approaches, so that, the peaceful political and social climate that once existed in Nikeland will reign supreme,” the group added.

The stakeholders therefore appealed to Governor Peter Mbah to intervene and ensure fairness in the zoning of the chairmanship position ahead of future local government elections.