The Governor of Enugu State, Barr. Peter Mbah, has advocated the creation of an additional state for the South-East, to place it at par with the other six geopolitical zones, except the North-West geo-political zone.
The governor also made a case for rotational presidency and state police to provide opportunity for better security in the nation and to give every section sense of belonging.
Gov. Mbah made the recommendations on Thursday evening when he received members of the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendment at Government House, Enugu, ahead of the regional public hearing on the matter slated for the International Conference Centre, Enugu during the weekend.
He said: “The one that excites us most is the idea of state policing. We have advocated ardently that there is need for states to create state police services, just as you have the the federal police, but with defined jurisdictions and operational parametres.
“We think that this is overdue and there could be no better time for that given the fragilities we have in our various communities.
“The state police will be a truly welcome development in our Constitution.
“The South-East suffers injustice. The fact that across the different geopolitical zones, the South-East is the only one with five states.
“So that is also what we believe will be corrected in this process of amendment.
“Of course, the idea of rotational presidency is important too. We think that, that obviously would provide South-East and every other region a chance at the presidency.
“So, these are areas we believe are commendable and we will be presenting our position formally in the hearing tomorrow and in the subsequent days”.
Speaking earlier, the Deputy Senate Chief Whip and leader of the delegation, Sen. Onyekachi Nwebonyi, stated that the Committee was in Enugu to get the inputs of the people of the zone into the constitutional amendment process.
“It goes without saying that the 1999 constitution has received a lot of criticism from Nigerians, including that it is the product of military dictatorship and, as such, does not represent the interest of all the segments that make up Nigeria.
“As a result of these criticisms. There is a need to alter the constitution from time to time.
“We pray that this engagement will afford us the people of South-East the opportunity to right some wrongs as a result of the position of the 1999 constitution, which we the people of South-East are crying foul that we are being marginalised in so many areas, particularly as it relates to the number of states, juxtaposing same with other geopolitical zones of Nigeria,” Nwebonyi stated.
