By Ayobami Ife, Abeokuta
As it is becoming increasingly clear that the two zones constititing Ogun East Senatorial District – Ijebu and Remo, may not be able to reach a consensus on the proposed Ijebu State to be carved out from Ogun State, the Senator representing the district in the 10th Senate, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, has declared that the two are free to pursue separate self – determination on the subject.
Daniel who is the sponsor of the Bill before the Senate on Ijebu State creation, spoke on Thursday at the palace of Awujale and Paramount of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona while fielding question from newsmen during a press briefing by the Ijebu State Creation Implementation Committee on the submission of memorandum regarding the matter.
Daniel whose ancestry cuts across Ijebu and Remo, said that where he belongs on the subject is not an issue at all, stressing that the task before him is to work assiduously for the actualisation of his constituents’ aspirations.
The former governor spoke just as the Ijebu State Creation Committee said the Ijebu people have elected to pursue their separate destiny on the proposed Ijebu State as the Remo’s enthusiasm for the previously accepted positions on the issue had waned.
Addressing journalists, chairman of Ijebu State Creation Implementation Committee, Bobasuwa Chris Okunowo, said given the leadership and motivation championed by the Awujale, the Ijebus remain unrelenting in the struggle.
Okunowo said the latest push followed the National Assembly’s recent public notice requesting for fresh submission of memoranda in line with the provision of Section 8 of the Constitution dealing with State creation after informing Nigerians that none of the earlier expressed interest submitted by new State agitators met the constitutional requirements.
He noted that the quest for Ijebu State was fundamentally borne out of the genuine desire of ljebu people of the old Ijebu Province that was unjustly merged with the old Abeokuta Province in February 1976 to form the present Ogun State.
According to him, justice, equity and fairness demand that if there is any additional State that qualifies to be created in the country, it is Ijebu State.
Okunowo, therefore, appealed to the Federal Government, National Assembly, the State Houses of Assembly, the media and well-meaning Nigerians to support the people of Ijebuland to realise a State of their own, even as he expressed the committee’s faith in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda in ensuring justice and correcting wrongs of the past.
“On the strength of the merit and justification of our case, it is our fervent belief that if the present exercise on creation of new States in Nigeria should result into only one additional new State in the South West and even in the Country as a whole, justice, equity and fairness demand that the new State must be Ijebu State, the only one of the original twenty-four (24) Provinces of Nigeria that is yet to become a State in Nigeria,” he said.
