From: Chuks Onuoha, Umuahia
The Umuahia Premier club has called on the Federal Government not to exclude the South Eastern part of the country from its planned rail line projects.
The group, therefore, urged igbo leaders to join hands with Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe to oppose any plan that would ensure that south East was excluded, adding that it would not be to the interest of the citizens of the region.
The Club made this call during their 2017 Annual General Meeting held in Umuahia, the Abia State capital.
Speaking through its President, Chief Nnanna Achiugo, the group said that it was lending weight to Sen. Abaribe, who opposed the plans to exclude the South East region from rail projects.
The group said that excluding the region was an indication that south easterners were not included in the affairs of the nation.
They equally condemned the militarisation of all the roads in the region which, he said, had resulted to loss economic hours, and called for expedition of action on the all-important Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway as well as Okigwe-Arondizuogu road, “which had remained death traps and made life unbearable for the citizenry”.
On the issue of Nnamdi Kanu’s travails, the club frowned at the unconventional conditions attached to his bail and called on the Federal Government to “try Nnamdi Kanu in a court of competent jurisdiction.
“We call on the federal government to be fair to him and remove every form of strenuous conditions as he is not violent like the other pressure groups from other parts of the Country”
The group wondered how the Federal Government would spend millions of US dollars to pay Boko Haram suspects for the release of Chibok girls, asking why Kanu would be treated like a common criminal.
The group congratulated Governor Okezie Ikpeazu on his victory at Supreme Court and urged his government to partner with them on their planned biannual health week programme.
They also called on the Abia state government to donate land to them to build a state secretariat as well as a recreation centre in the state capital, adding that Chief Achiugo, the club had been re positioned for greatness.
The meeting attracted members within and outside the state and was used to review the state of things in Abia State and the nation as whole.