The Joint Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives on Constitution Review has approaved the creation of an additional state in the South-east geo-political zone of the country, to tackle the long-standing agitation over the region’s perceived marginalisation in the nation’s political structure.
The resolution was reached during the committee’s two-day retreat held in Lagos from October 24 to 25.
C haired by the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, and co-chaired by Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, the committee, deliberated extensively on the long-standing demand for a sixth state in the region.
The committee also considered a wide-ranging proposal for constitutional amendments, including 55 separate requests for new states across the federation.
Addressing journalists after the meeting, a member of the committee, Senator Osita Izunaso representing Imo West from the All Progressives Congress (APC) described the decision as “a right step in the right direction,” noting that it would help address long-standing feelings of marginalisation in the South-East.
“The most important of all the approvals that we have gotten is that we have agreed today to give an additional state to the South-East to balance it six-six states per geo-political zone regardless of the North-West that has seven states.
“We have set up another committee to look at modalities to create more states for areas that need more states. These are the things that we have achieved today. An additional state for South-East is a major achievement of this final retreat of the National Assembly Constitution Review Committee,” he said.
