‘Use executive order to create new state in South East’

Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council (OYC) Worldwide yesterday charged President Muhammadu Buhari to create additional state in the southeast through an executive order.

It made the demand in a statement by its National President, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, after their meeting in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital.

According to the body, an additional state would address all the structural injustice and artificial marginalisation that the military had created against the zone.

It cautioned that unless the president does that, he might loose the support of Igbo in the 2019 presidential election.

The body maintained that an additional state from Anambra, Abia, Delta or Ebonyi state was needed to make the southeast to have six states like other geo-political zones.

The statement scolded Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha for plotting to make his son-in-law to takeover from him, and declared that it only recognised Senator Hope Uzodinma as the authentic governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Imo State.

The statement reads: “The leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide have waded into the controversy trailing the victory of Senator Uzodinma as the authentic candidate of the APC, and insists that Igbo youths are solidly behind him, come 2019.”

Isiguzoro said the OYC worldwide would stand solidly behind Uzodinma’s candidature, as well as all returning governors from Abia, Ebonyi, and Enugu states, except Anambra, where no election would hold in 2019.

He cautioned against boycotting the 2019 elections, as canvassed in some quarters’

According to him, a similar action engineered by Ralph Uwazurike in the 2006 census, caused the Igbo to have the minority tag that it currently suffers in the country’s population status.

The group promised to mobilise people from across the 95 local councils in the zone to support the returning governors in and Uzodinma in the next year elections.

It also implored the military to put human face into its operations, as they carry out Operation Python Dance 3, in the southeast.

They also urged restraint in protests and other pro-Biafra activities in the zone, stating any act of confrontation would lead to massive loss of lives.