Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
Some Benue youths on Wednesday took to the streets of Makurdi to demand for the zoning of the speakership position of the House of Representatives to the north central geopolitical zone.
The youths who were drawn from different political parties bore placards with different inscriptions including ‘Benue supports North Central for Speakership’, ‘North Central deserves Speakership’, ‘North Central has not produced Speaker or Deputy Speaker since 1999’ among others.
They lamented what they described as the marginalization of the north central by the federal government despite its support for governments in power since the advent of democracy in the country.
Speaking with news enduring the peaceful protest, Youth Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue, Tersoo Barki, urged the leadership of the APC to consider the north central by zoning the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to the zone.
Barki recalled that since the coming of democracy in 1999, the north central geopolitical zone has never benefitted from either the position of Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.
“That is why we are here to peacefully demand that the APC leadership considers our zone (North Central) this time around by giving us the position of Speaker.
“As you can see, this is not just about the APC because we have with us on this peaceful protest youths from other parties who have come to support with us in this agitation. We are hoping that the leadership of our great party, the APC will listen to our plight and do something,” Barki submitted.