Senate President, the Okpokpowulu of Idomaland, Senator David Aleichenu Mark has assured Nigerians, especially people from Benue zone C Senatorial District that the long-awaited Apa State and any other state that meets requirement in the country would be created.
Mark who holds the highest title in Idomaland gave this assurance in Otukpo, the proposed capital of the yet to be created state when the Chairman, Senate Committee on Police Affairs, Paulinus Igwe, led a delegation of his kinsmen from Ebonyi State to felicitate with him during the Christmas.
According to Mark: “The argument of those opposing state creation is based on whether existing states are viable or not. But they forget that a state might be unviable just because the administrator is not ingenious with internal revenue generation or the people are not united and the administrator has to spend the available resources on achieving peace.
“I am for the creation of Apa state and any other state that may fit the conditions. I have never shied from my agitation for creation of additional states just as I have always called for the creation of roles for traditional rulers in the Constitution. The traditional rulers are the custodians of peaceful coexistence in our various local communities. We must, therefore, confer on them constitutional powers that would enable them to perform the roles of ensuring peace in the communities,” he said.
The retired Brigadier General urged the people of Ebonyi Central Senatorial District to forgive one another and live in harmony in line with the message that accompanies the birth of Christ.
“The central message of Christianity is forgiveness and unless we can genuinely forgive one another, we cannot be a good Christian. It is not easy to forgive, particularly in a situation where lives have been taken.
“But Christ’s birth brought peace, the type that was not known in the world before his coming. And he came and preached forgiveness. We must, therefore, as Christians who are supposed to be Christ-like, forgive one another. I appeal to you to also appeal to those who are at home to allow peace to reign.
“In this New Year, we must make a resolution for peace to reign in Ebonyi Central. I am willing to work to achieve this peace. If all leaders would make themselves available to work for peace in the little community, we will soon have peace as a nation,” Mark noted.
Earlier in his speech, Senator Igwe had told Mark that he brought his people to pay homage and celebrate the festive period with the Senate President and his family.`
It would be recalled that elder statesman and Mark’s political rival, Major General Lawrence Onojan (rtd) once told newsmen that the creation of Apa State being campaigned by Mark was a political gimmick construed to deceive the Idoma people.
According to the former military governor of Kastina State: “Idoma people have been waiting for Apa State for the past 12 years and it has never come. So, any Idoma man who still believes it now is probably out of the moon; he is not a true son of Idoma. It is a political gimmick. When it would come, it would come. We are praying for it and a single person cannot bring a state. It has to be the collective effort of the people.”
Only last Monday, Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Smart Adeyemi, raised the alarm that Governors are against the National Assembly in their moves towards creating additional states in the country.
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