Enugu communities lament 30 years marginalisation, demand justice

The people of Mbulu-Iyiukwu and Mbulu Njodo in Enugu East Local Government Area of Enugu State have cried out over alleged marginalisation for over 30 years.

Their outcry is contained in a statement made available to journalists on Friday, signed by Barr. Chukwuemeka Agbo, stakeholders’ spokesperson.

According to them, for over 30 years, they have not had the opportunity of producing the chairman of Enugu East Local Government Area.

While decrying what they called “pervasive discrimination, marginalization and neglect”, Agbo said Mbulu Njodo, Mbulu Iyiukwu and Mbulu Owehe forms about 75 percent population of the council area but had suffered in the hands of the political zone of Nike Uno.

“This wanton abandonment and neglect have seen to it that Nike Uno political zone has perpetuated herself in holding on to and producing the prime leadership of Enugu East Local Government Area by whatever name it is called.

“At the moment, Nike Uno is presiding over the Enugu East Local Government Area by producing the Executive Chairman.

“After the creation of Enugu East Local Government Area in 1996, four geopolitical and administrative and administrative zones were delineated to ensure equitable and even distribution of development and services and thus it was agreed in a pact signed in 2007 by our revered traditional rulers, as well as notable leaders of thought and other prominent stakeholders of Nike extraction in Enugu East Local Government Area that political positions will be zoned and rotated in the four development centers that make up Enugu East Local Government Area.

“The geopolitical zones are as follows: Nike Uno, Mbulu Njodo,
Mbulu Owehe and Mbulu Iyiukwu.”

He lamented that since creation in 1996 till date, all the chairman of the local government had come from Nike Uno.

“From the above analysis of the political and administrative appointments and elective positions, it is obvious of the imbalance and deprivation in the sharing formular to the other geopolitical zones.

“Nike Uno has produced all the prime leadership of Enugu East Local Government Area and this aberration and injustice should not continue because it is an ill wind that has introduced political crisis and bred unrest, suspicion, and acrimony amongst various groups in the geopolitical zones.

“Nikeland has in the past enjoyed harmonious coexistence and sharing common socio-cultural affinity and brotherhood. It has become imperative that the present imbalance which is a time bomb be done away forthwith, even as another cycle of elections approaches, so that, the peaceful political and social climate that once existed in Nikeland will reign supreme,” he further stated.

Agbo added that the essence of the press briefing was to draw the “compassionate interest and concern of the Executive Governor of Enugu State in the person of His Excellency Barr Peter Mbah to help correct the political imbalance in the election of the chairmanship position of Enugu East Local Government Area and to end the marginalization meted to those concerned.”

Enugu communities lament 30 years marginalisation, demand justice