South-East students have thrown their weight behind Olisa Agbakoba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, on his suit against alleged marginalization of the South-East in the areas of State creation and infrastructural development.
The suit is before Justice A. Liman of a Federal High Court, sitting in Enugu. He was absent in court today, Monday.
Speaking to journalists at the Court where the case was to come up yesterday for hearing, one of the students’ leaders, who identified himself as Uche Eze said they were in court to show unflinching solidarity with Agbakoba “because the South-East has had enough of marginalization in the scheme of things in Nigeria.”
“We are here to say that ‘enough is enough’. We want the court to give us fair hearing. If Nigeria does not want us, they should let us go.
“A situation where we are being marginalized in every area is unacceptable. We face discrimination in every area. Apart from the structural and infrastructural imbalance, we face the same thing in the area of admission quota; we face the same treatment in the area of cut-off-mark for tertiary institutions and unity schools. This cannot continue.”
Meanwhile, the President of the Igbo Youth Movement, IYM, Evang. Elliot Ukoh, who was also in court, appealed to the students to remain calm.
While applauding Agbakoba for initiating the suit, told the students that “since the matter is already for the court to decide, we should wait patiently for the outcome of the legal exercise.”
It could be re-called that Agbakoba had approached the court, over several grounds including ”total neglect of the Applicant’s Geopolitical Zone by the 1st Respondent in terms of infrastructure and general federal presence making the Applicant feel not part of the 1st Respondent.
“Disparity in States structure which puts the Applicant’s South-East Zone behind every other Geopolitical Zone in political and judicial appointments and representation at the National Assembly, as well as in revenue allocation.
“Foisting low revenue allocation status on the Applicant’s South-East Zone as a result of failure to exploit Oil/Gas and Coal and as a result of the said structural imbalance.”
The case is now expected to come up on Friday, June 9, 2017.
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