Senator Ned Nwoko, representing Delta North Senatorial District, has called on Ohaneze Ndi Igbo to sustain its support for the creation of Anioma State.
Addressing the leadership and members of Ohaneze Ndi Igbo as the chairman of the World Igbo Day celebration, organised by the apex Igbo socio-cultural body, held on Monday at Awka, Anambra State, Senator Nwoko said the people of Anioma shared a common heritage and language with the Igbos in the Southeast.
Senator Ned Nwoko, represented at the occasion by Ogbueshi Godfrey Odogwu, Director General of the Technical Committee on the agitation for the creation of Anioma State, also urged unity peace, and social harmony among the Igbos and Nigerians in general.
Giving the history of the quest for Anioma, Senator Nwoko noted:
“ We have been agitating for our own State, Anioma State, since 1954 when one of our most celebrated sons, the great nationalist and first premier of the Midwest region, Sir Dennis Osadebay, submitted our request for the West Niger province (Anioma) to be carved out of the old Benin and Warri Provinces.
“ In the last seventy years since then, Anioma Igbo have not missed any opportunity to file a request for the creation of Anioma State, a request for self-determination and statehood to end decades of marginalisation and injustice.
“ The actualisation of the quest for the creation of Anioma State has remained a dream deferred until I got elected as Senator in 2023. After wide consultations with our Anioma people, including our highly revered traditional rulers, professional bodies, youth and student associations, women groups and Anioma people living in the
diaspora, I sponsored a bill for the creation of Anioma State as the 37th State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“ This is intended to amend the long overdue balance in the Nigerian federal structure and also correct the decades of injustice against Ndigbo. The creation of Anioma State will also increase the political representation of Anioma people at the centre and accelerate the speed of socio-economic and infrastructural development of Anioma”
Senator Nwoko expressed joy that the “ bill for the creation of Anioma State has since passed through the first and second readings in the Senate” and also witnessed the “ presentation of Memorandum at both the Senate and House of Representatives Public Hearings in Ikot Ekpene and Enugu last July”
He stated further that the Anioma state creation bill had received the support of over ninety Senators from all the zones in Nigeria, while the passage of the bill in third reading and the Referendum would follow.
“ Help Ndi Anioma Igbo to end this seventy-year-old quest for the creation of Anioma State. Let us all rise with one voice to say we are proud to be Igbo, bonded in one destiny”
Senator Ned Nwoko commended the entrepreneurial spirit of the Igbos and called for the sustenance of nation-building.
“ I join you to celebrate Igbo God given capacity for creativity, enterprise, wisdom, dignity, hard work and resilience. We are dream makers and great achievers. We have a sacred duty to promote law and order towards the manifestation of our destiny and the continued greatness of the Igbo world.
“ Ohaneze Ndi, as our foremost and respected socio-cultural body, must lead in the crusade for peaceful co-existence in Igbo land and Nigeria in general.
The ceremony was attended by several dignitaries, including Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra state and the President General of Ohaneze Ndi World wide, Senator John Azuta Mbata, as well as different socio-cultural groups across the five states of the South East and delegates from the Anioma area.
