Proposed Anim State has wider acceptance than others – Imo monarch

Commends Uzodinma on Orlu Zone development

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From George Onyejiuwa, Owerri

The traditional ruler of Isiokwu–Ihioma community in Orlu council area of Imo State, His Royal Highness, Eze John Nwosu (Idinoba Ojiudo), has stressed that the proposed Anim State has wider acceptance than any other proposed state in the South East, saying it involves the merging of council areas from both Anambra and Imo states, and not a division.

The monarch, a former sole administrator of old Orlu council and a Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Anambra, Delta, Ekiti and Osun states, stated this at a press conference held in his Idinoba Palace, Isiokwu–Ihioma community in Orlu council area on Sunday. He said: “The proposed Anim State has been widely accepted by everybody in the South East because it is from Anambra and Imo states and we have almost got there. We are hopeful that it will be approved by both chambers of the National Assembly and by two-thirds of the 36 state Houses of Assembly. At least the South East will have at least six states.”

Eze Nwosu, erstwhile chairman of Orlu Council of Traditional Rulers, noted: “What South East has lost in terms of representation, political appointments is unquantifiable but we start afresh with the creation of Anim State as a way of addressing this political marginalisation.”

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

The monarch recalled that some years back, as chairman of Orlu LGA, when Amadi Ikwechegh, the former governor of old Imo State, visited the area on March 1, 1988, and asked him: “Where is Orlu, I have 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 a one-street city. Orlu has remained so for forty years before receiving the Midas touch by Governor Uzodinma,” he said.

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

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

“The two higher 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 added.