The Okun Development Association (ODA), the umbrella socio-cultural body of the Yoruba speaking people of Kogi State, have intensified its demand for a new state to be called Okun State.
The proposed state is to comprise the Okun speaking communities in the present Ekiti and Kwara states. The proposed state if created is all part of the desire of the Okuns to be merged with the South West geo-political zone.
At the Association’s end of year meeting, the President, Ambassador Babatunde Paul Fadumiyo, said that the proposal had been addressed to the National Assembly in view of the ongoing review of the 1999 Constitution.
At the annual congress held at the Saint Augustine’s College, Kabba, the Association adopted the articulated Okun position on the proposal.
Fadumiyo hinted that “the creation of an Okun State or a new state where Okunland will be an equal stakeholder or partner,” is uppermost in the mind of every Okun man or woman. His declaration sounded the death knell to the extant agreement involving the people of Kogi West and Central Senatorial Districts to constitute themselves into Kabba State, fashioned after the old Kabba Province.
The Chairman of the ODA committee set up to review the draft memorandum to the National Assembly Committee on the Review of the Constitution, Chief J.O. Yusuf, affirmed that the area demanded in its memorandum, among other things, “for an appropriate state structure and geo-political relocation that shall facilitate our cultural advancement and socio-political development.
Meanwhile, Senator Smart Adeyemi (Kogi West) said that the agitation for Okun State was in order and a legitimate aspiration of the people. He blamed military’s incursion into politics for the miscarriage of justice during the creation of states.
He stated: “This is what threw many people into wrong places and it is time citizens corrected the ‘political demarcation’ created among common tribes and people.
“When we start the review of the 1999 Constitution, state creation and councils would feature. Democracy is all about good governance and freedom. Very soon, people would determine where they would be. You will determine the state you want to be, you will determine what you want.”
Extracts from Guardian Newspapers. Read More
