Ben Dunno, Warri, with agency report
Ahead of the inauguration of the Ninth National Assembly in June, the Yoruba community in Imo State has thrown their weight behind Igbo; in the quest for the position of Senate President.
According to the Chairman of the Yoruba group, under the auspices of “Igbimo Ajose,” Prince Adeleke Adeoye, for fairness and equity, President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) should support the South East to produce the senate president for the Ninth session of the National Assembly.
Adeoye said these, yesterday, when he spoke with newsmen, after the group’s meeting in Owerri, the state capital.
The community leader faulted narratives that the North East should produce the senate president and stressed that since the president is from the North and the Vice President is from the South West, it is time for the South East to be duly recognised in national politics.
He called on senators-elect to show patriotism by presenting a senator of Igbo extraction for the position of senate president.
“Different ethnic groups have been strategising on how to clinch the seat for their candidates.
“Over the years, Nigerians of South East extraction have been deprived of leadership positions at the national level. The time is now to correct the anomalies of the past; in the interest of national peace and unity. For the country to move to the next level, all ethnic groups must be accorded equal opportunities.”
In a related development, Igbo traders in Edo State have pledged to come out en masse and cast their ballots for candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in tomorrow’s House of Assembly election.
The Igbo traders said their support for APC candidates in the election would ensure continuity of ongoing economic reforms being implemented by the administration of Governor Godwin Obaseki.
Leader of the Igbo traders, Chief Ejike Enemuo, gave the assurance at a meeting they held with the governor, at the Government House, in Benin City, capital of the state, yesterday.
Enemuo said Igbo traders are beneficiaries of several economic reforms initiated by the APC-led government in the state, particularly, the ban on illegal tax collection across markets in the state and the massive cut in revenue paid by them.
In his response, Obaseki expressed gratitude to the traders for supporting his administration, adding that he remains committed to building, on the business-friendly environment in the state so that traders will continue to do their businesses with ease.
He noted that his administration was concerned about poor power supply in the state and assured that an Independent Power Plant (IPP) would become operational in the state by June this year.
It was a different story in Warri, Delta State.
The apex body of Ijaw ethnic groups, Ijaw National Congress (INC), called on the Federal Government not to militarise the coastal settlements, particularly areas occupied by Ijaw across the Niger Delta, ahead of tomorrow’s elections.
INC Steering Committee Spokesperson and former minister of Police Affairs, Alaowei Broderick Bozimo, who made the appeal while addressing newsmen in Warri, yesterday, also appealed to the federal government to allow peace reign in the Niger Delta.