NASS urged to confirm creation of Aba State

From Okey Sampson, Umuahia

Aba State Movement (ASM) has called on the National Assembly to confirm Aba as the 6th state for the South East when more states will be created.

The spokesman of ASM, Chief Theo Nkire, made the call in Aba, Abia State, when the body addressed the press on why Aba State should be carved out of the present Abia State.

He said the proposed Aba State has twice been the choice of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in 2015 and 2018, when committees set up by the apex Igbo group voted Aba as the sixth state for the South East.

“The demand for Aba State was represented to the National Assembly in 1982. On June 16, 1983, the National Assembly recommended a referendum for the creation of Aba State.”

Nkire regretted that the military takeover of December 31, 1983, truncated the referendum, adding that some of the states that were recommended for creation in 1983, alongside Aba, including Adamawa, Jigawa, Katsina, Kogi, Taraba and Enugu have been created except Aba.

“Between 2009 and 2010, ASM visited 21 states and obtained the signatures of the members of their State Houses of Assembly in line with constitutional requirements.”

Nkire listed the distinctiveness and uniqueness of the proposed Aba State to include homogeneity of communities making demand, unaltered boundaries, economic viability and massive manpower.

“The proposed Aba State can survive on internally generated revenue. A Federal Government 1998 Revenue Survey of Local Governments in Nigeria showed that of the total IGR of over N2b by the 17 LGAs of Abia State, the 9 LGAs in the proposed Aba State contributed a larger part of the sum.

He urged the National Assembly to confirm Aba State as the 6th South East State because of its distinctiveness and uniqueness over others in the zone.