KANU Calls on Nat’l  Assembly to consider creation of Ogoja State 

By Ene Asuquo, Calabar 

A former minister of justice and Attorney General during President Obasanjo regime, Chief KANU Agabi ( SAN) has called on the National Assembly to consider the Creation of Ogoja State.

He emphasized the importance of Ogoja State creation, stressing that it is the only province that has not been given that status.

Agabi made this known during his presentation of memorandum to the House of Representatives Committee for the Creation of Ogoja State at the on going public hearing on constitution review in Calabar in support of the Creation of Ogoja State

“I am immensely grateful to you, for the privilege of presenting this case to you for the creation of Ogoja state out of the present Cross River State”.

He stated that agitation for states in the country was initially limited to the demand for the Middle Belt State, the Midwest State and the Calabar-Ogoja – Rivers State. 

The former minister, Agabi noted that In answer to those demands, the nation proceeded to proliferate states so that the purpose for which minority communities made those demands was totally and completely defeated.

He said the condition of the minorities has worsened. Their condition never improved. “We continue to suffer, We continue to suffer every calamity that can befall a people, there is not a single distress or disaster that we are exempted from” he maintained 

“I am seventy-nine years old and I feel sorry that in all that time the condition of my people did not improve” It went from bad to worse. We have no good roads. We do not have electricity. In all our villages.

He maintained that creating Ogoja State will bring development to these areas that have been long neglected 

According to him,”This agitation is not rooted in malice, It is made in good faith”. Our ancestors, when they promulgated the Constitution, realized beforehand that a time like this will come. 

He said that “our founding fathers appreciated the fact that conditions in our country will compel communities to make demands of the type that we now make. And so, they made provisions in the Constitution. 

“you, Honourable representatives of the people have come to implement and give effect to.  this request is made in exercise of a right vested in the people by the Constitution”. He stated.

He stressed further that exercise of states creation will forever go on until every community is able to take its own affairs into its own hands,that is why you have been chosen to undertake this exercise. 

“We trust you to fill in the gaps for us. We appeal to you, we urge you to say for us whatever we ought to say but have failed or forgotten to say” he stated.