Senator Magnus Abe, has said the clamour for Bori State will be considered first, before the 18 states proposed by the national conference, when the legislature kick-starts the process.
He called on the people of the seven local government areas that make up Rivers South-East senatorial district not to lose hope over their agitation for the creation of Bori State. Abe, who represents Rivers South-East senatorial district in the National Assembly, spoke at Saakpenwa, headquarters of Tai Local Government Area of Rivers State, at a one day mini-congress of the Ogoni Ethnic Nationality, organised by the Supreme Council of Ogoni Traditional Rulers.
“The power to create states in line with the Constitution, rest on the National Assembly and by the grace of the people of Rivers South East senatorial district, consisting of Opobo, Oyigbo, Andoni and the four Ogoni Local Government Areas of Eleme, Gokana, Khana and Tai. I am a member of the Senate and privileged to be a member of the Constitution Review Committee.
“During the last Constitution review exercise, request for states were overruled, but because the Senate Committee saw merit in the agitation for Bori State, it allowed the demand to be re-presented, which was received by Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Deputy President of the Senate and Chairman of the Constitution Review Committee. So, if there are other documents for state creation, such request will meet our own at the committee’s table. “The problem of Nigeria is not how to share the cake but how to enlarge it.
If we create unviable states, we are actually inviting under-development. Bori State is a viable state with enormous capacity and resources. That is the demand that is legitimately before the National Assembly, and it will be weighed when the demand for creation of states are considered,” he said. In his address, former Chairman, Provisional Council of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, Professor Ben Naanen, said majority of Ogoni people believe that having a state of their own was the surest ways of getting empowered in Nigeria.
Source: AllAfrica
