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Constitition Review: Northern C’River stakeholders demand creation of Ogoja state

Stakeholders from Northern Cross River on Saturday at the House of Representatives public hearing on constitution review held in Calabar demanded for the creation of Ogoja State.

The stakeholders noted that the creation of an Ogoja state was long overdue considering that Ogoja province was the only remaining one in the old South Eastern region without a state.

World swift news reports that the old South Eastern region comprises of the present South East and South South geo-political zones.

According to some of the stakeholders at the zonal centre ‘B’ of the constitution review held for Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River, this is the auspicious time to right the historical wrong by creating Ogoja state.

They said that no meaningful national restructuring would be completed without addressing the injustice of Ogoja’s exclusion.
They were also of the view that creating an Ogoja state would not be a favour, rather a constitutional right, moral obligation, and a political necessity.

Former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Kanu Agabi, said that historically the agitation for states was initially limited to the demand for the Middle Belt state, the Midwest state and the Calabar-Ogoja – Rivers state.

“But in answer to these demands, the nation proceeded to proliferate states so that the purpose for which the minority communities made these demands is completely defeated.
“Since then, the condition of the minorities have worsened and has never improved as they continue to suffer,” he said.

Agabi, 79, lamented that the Ogoja people have suffered all forms of indignities ranging from lack of electricity, access roads, water and functional schools in almost all the villages.
He noted that the minds of the young have been brutalised even as the majority of the people live in squalor amid the opulence of their leaders.

He added that therefore the agitation for Ogoja state was not rooted in malice.
“It is made in good faith. Our ancestors, when they promulgated the Constitution, realised beforehand that a time like this will come.

“They knew that the conditions in our country will compel communities to make demands of the type that we now make, so they made provisions in the Constitution which you, Honourable Representatives of the people have come to implement and give effect to.

“This request is made in exercise of a right vested in the people by the Constitution. The exercise of states creation will forever go on until every community is able to take its own affairs into its own hands.

“Our greatest resources are the people, not oil, minerals, agricultural produce. We are an intelligent people, resourceful resilient, hardworking and God-fearing. We are a humble and honest. It is such a people that present this memorandum to you,” he said.

Similarly, Justice Eneji, Johnny Agim (SAN), Cletus Obun, and CP Lawrence Alobi (rtd.), decried the injustice against Ogoja people, whom they claimed have been denied a state for over 50 years.

In the same vein, Solomon Ekam and Prof. Achi Bekomsom noted that the people of old Ogoja Province, comprising Yala, Ogoja, Bekwarra, Obudu and Obanliku, Boki, Ikom and Etung, have consistently lamented injustice done to them and demanded equity, fairness, and inclusion into the nation’s scheme of things.

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