From: Chuks Onuoha, Umuahia
A group, the Umuahia Premier Club, has condemned what it called the exclusion of the South Eastern region from the planned Federal Governments rail line project, saying the step should be opposed by any right-thinking Nigerian.
The group, therefore, urged Igbo leaders to join hands with Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe to oppose this plan and ensure that the South East was not shortchanged in this arrangement.
The group made its position known during their 2017 Annual General Meeting held in Umuahia, Abia State capital.
President of the Club, Chief Nnanna Achiugo, who addressed newsmen at the end of the meeting, said the club supported the position of Sen. Abaribe of Abia South Senatorial district, who opposed the plans to exclude the South East region from rail projects of the Federal Government, stating that it was an indication that south easterners were not included in the affairs of the nation.
The group equally condemned the militarisation of all the roads in the region, which they said had resulted to loss economic hours, and called for expedition of action on the all-important Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway as well as Okigwe-Arondizuogu Road, “which had remained death traps and made life unbearable for the citizenry”.
On the issue of Nnamdi Kanu’s travails, the group frowned at the unconventional conditions attached to his bail and called on the Federal Government to “try Nnamdi Kanu in a court of competent jurisdiction.”
“We call on the Federal Government to be fair to him (Kanu) and remove every strenuous conditions as he is not violent like the other pressure groups from other parts of the country.”
The group wondered how the government would spend millions of US dollars to pay Boko Haram suspects for the release of Chibok girls even when Kanu, a son of Umuahia, would be treated like a common criminal.
They congratulated Governor Okezie Ikpeazu on his victory at Supreme Court and urged his government to partner with them on their planned biannual health week programme.
They also called on the Abia state government to donate land to them to build a state secretariat as well as a recreation centre in the state capital, adding that Chief Achiugo, the club had been repositioned for greatness.
The meeting attracted members within and outside the state and was used to review the state of things in Abia State and the nation as whole.