Lucky Obukohwo Reporting
Igbo United Professionals (IUP) has urged the Senate President of the 10th National Assembly and former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio not to marginalize the south eastern part of the country just like the immediate past administration.
The group’s appeal was contained in a statement by its President, Emmanuel Ikechukwu-Jonathan, and the Secretary, Cosmas Igata and made available to newsmen in Enugu.
The group said that it would not be healthy for South East to experience the kind of treatment the immediate past administration meted on the geopolitical zone stressing that the only way to put that to an end was to align with the APC leadership programmes.
The statement said that the Igbo collapsed their structures to ensure that Akpabio emerged victorious in the keenly contested election in the Senate and should be kind to the region for that singular reason.
“Had it been that Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu and Sen. Osita Izunazo did not step down for Akpabio, Senator Abdulazeez Yari, would have won the seat of the President of the Senate with his 45 votes as the 63 votes garnered by Akpabio would have been shared by the three contenders from Southern Nigeria and that would not have been healthy”, the group in its statement said.
The statement said the association was one of the foremost groups from the South East that led the advocacy for support for Akpabio and the APC zoning arrangement as a bet for the accommodation of the South East by the current leadership at the centre.
The association stressed that it will do the zone better than harm by aligning with the government at the centre for more effective inclusiveness.