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Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi has argued why the South East should be the region to produce the next president of Nigeria in the 2023 general election.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Governor Umahi made this known on Friday during a meeting between visiting President Muhammadu Buhari and leaders of the zone in Abakaliki.
Umahi stressed that it will be difficult for the South-East zone to continue voting for people who will not vote for it during elections.
He said that it was wrong for the southern part of the country to clamour for equity and fairness on the issue of presidency when it could not replicate such within its fold.
“The South producing the presidency is a moral question which should be answered by its components.
“I thank a leader of the Middle Belt Forum and Chief Ayo Adebanjo from the South-West, as well as Chief Edwin Clark from the South-South over their views on a South-East president.
“The South-East should produce the president if other zones of the South are truly seeking for equity, fairness and justice,” he said.
Umahi noted that political considerations were applied in ensuring that the South-West zone produced the president in 1999.
“When it comes to our turn whatever wrong we have committed, the same political consideration should be applied to ensure equity and fairness.
“It will be difficult for the South-East to continually being shortchanged and continue voting for those who cannot vote for us,” he said.
Umahi joined other leaders of the zone to appeal for the release of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra’s leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
“I have never been in support of the group’s activities and the president granted my appeal for a political situation towards his release.
“I want the Ohaneze Ndigbo Socio-cultural Organisation to shun the politicisation of the process and immediately consult relevant stakeholders and Kanu’s lawyer for it to commence,” he said.
He thanked Buhari for the visit and noted that he would still be invited to inaugurate more projects of the administration.
Meanwhile, in his remarks, President of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Prof. George Obiozor said that Igbos would always crave for a united Nigeria which would accord them equity and justice.
Obiozor, represented by Chief Peter Aneke pleaded with the president to graciously direct the release of Kanu and other youths incarcerated for their agitations to ensure peace in the zone.
Also, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, a First Republic minister, informed the audience that he was the surviving official of that era and begged the president to grant his request towards ensuring peace in the South-East zone.
“I seek to be given the mandate to negotiate peace in the zone because I desire such before I join my ancestors,” he said.
TNG reports several leaders of the zone joined in the call for Kanu’s release as the event concluded the president’s two-day official visit to the state.
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