A Chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State, Prof Leroy Edozien has appealed to Senator Ned Nwoko and Senator Peter Nwaoboshi to settle their grievances for the sake of Aniomas.
Nwoko and Nwaoboshi have been at odds during the buildup to the 2023 general elections in the state.
Speaking to a group of the Ugo-Anioma Movement led by Victor Sorokwu on an advocacy visit on Monday, Prof Edozien stated that he had made repeated efforts to settle the two Anioma leaders’ issues, and urged them to put their differences aside for the Anioma’s collective good.
He said, “When I received message that you are paying me advocacy visit, what came to my mind is that I’m not a senator, or commissioner, or ex this or ex that, I’m just a retired doctor and academia but I thank you all for coming, even though, if it’s only to come and greet me, I am okay with it.
“Like you said, the Anioma issue is my key interest, yes, I’m very passionate about Anioma. I started supporting the bill for Anioma creation when Senator Ned Nwoko was in the PDP. So, for me, it’s not about politics or party, but it’s about what is good for us. That’s the primary consideration; I don’t want to know who is behind or in front of it.
“That should be the primary focus for our people. When I came out to aspire for governor between 2017 and 2018, it was because of that Anioma agenda, when we were canvassing that APC should zone the ticket to Delta North because the zone was yet to complete their eight years at that time.
“Those who are against the creation of Anioma State, have their own reasons, I can only speculate: the first and obvious one is personal political issue, secondly, those who do not want us to be part of South-East; for those people, I will say that most of them are not aware of the genesis of the current fight for Anioma State.
“The genesis is that we all understand the President demanded to create one state to bring about equity in the ratio to the Southeast.
“So, if they are to create one state in the South East, let it be Anioma state. If Anioma had produced a president and Ohaneze-Ndigbo, what’s stopping us from being part of the South East? What do they want? It’s about political contractions, and we cannot give up on the fight for Anioma state.
“You talked about the issue between Senator Ned Nwoko and Senator Peter Nwauboshi. I have been making efforts to settle them. Because of this issue of disagreement among our leaders, which is not just two –– we have another two or three –– trying to get these leaders to work together for the interest of Anioma. That gave birth to Delta North progressive. We can’t be doing things the way we were doing them before; let’s find a new way that will unite us.
“In pursuit of that mandate, we have visited some leaders before the tsunami of defection, which changed the whole equation for now. I have offered to travel to Abuja to get two of them to meet secretly.
“The only thing I can add now is to say to Senator Peter Nwauboshi and Senator Ned Nwoko, you don’t need anybody to intervene. Two of you agree that you have your grievances, but when it comes to Anioma, we will work together.”
Earlier, the leader of the group and convener, Mr Victor Sorokwu, urged the Asaba chief to intervene in the issue between the two senators for the sake of Anioma.
“In the aftermath of the Senate Zonal Public Hearing in Ikot-Ekpene and Enugu on the Creation of Anioma State, we, the delegation of the Ugo-Anioma Movement, decided to pay you an advocacy visit for you to help us intervene, especially in Senator Nwoko and Senator Nwaoboshi’s matter,” he appealed.
He stated that the visit was aimed at reaching out to Anioma leading lights and icons to fully throw their weights behind the Anioma project and to rally as pillars around the Principal Champion of the renewed quest for the actualisation of Anioma State.
