Proposed ANIM State has wider Acceptance Imo Monarch

From George Onyejiuwa, Owerri

Traditional ruler of Isiokwu – Ihioma Community in Orlu council areas of Imo State, Eze John Nwosu (Idinoba Ojiudo) has stressed that the proposed ANIM state has a wider acceptance than any other proposed one in the South East, saying it is the merging of councils areas from both Anambra and Imo states and not a division.

The monarch who was a former sole administrator of old Orlu council and Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Anambra, Delta, Ekiti and Osun states, at a press conference in his Idinoba Palace, Isiokwu – Ihioma community in Orlu council area, yesterday, said the proposed  ANIM State has been widely accepted by everybody in the South East because it is from Anambra and Imo states.

“We are hopeful that it will be approved by both the chambers of the national Assembly and by two-third of the 36 sate Houses of Assembly. At least, the South East will have six states.

“What South East has lost in terms of representation and political appointments is unquantifiable but we start afresh with the creation of ANIM State as a way of addressing this political marginalisation.”

He commended Imo State governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma, for his developmental strides and in particular for bringing wider development in Orlu zone, mostly in the area of road infrastructure, which according to him, was overlooked for many years.

He recalled that some years back, as chairman of Orlu LGA, when Amadi Ikwechegh, then governor of old Imo State, visited the area on March 1, 1988 and asked him ‘where is Orlu, I’ve heard so much about?’

“The only thing I could show him was the colonial high court building. He sighed and said, ‘so Orlu is just one street city.’ Orlu remained so for 40 years before receiving the Midas touch by Governor Uzodimma.”

However, He noted that the past administration of Achike Udenwa made spirited efforts in advancing the zone by building the international market and stadium, but regretted that his immediate successors slumbered and lost the steam.

He pointed out that Uzodimma made the difference and re-established modern Orlu through a visible good road network that gave the area a new outlook.

“The two high institutions at Ogboko and Omuma show great promise to attest to a great son of brawn and bravado closing the era of “Obodo nile emepechana, ofozie Okigwe na Orlu.

What with the Owerri-Orlu road, Orlu-Akokwa road, Orlu-Mgbidi road in the reckoning while the Orlu-Amaifeke-Ihioma-Ihiala road, momentarily jinxed beckons desperately for redemption,” he adde