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FG Sued for Neglecting Southeast

Legal luminary and veteran human rights activist Olisa Agbakoba has filed an application before a Federal High Court in Enugu challenging the total neglect of the southeast zone by the federal government.

The former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) is also asking for the sum of N1trillion as damages to be shared among the five southeast states.

The fundamental rights class action, which is before Justice A. R. Mohammed, is on behalf of Dr Agbakoba and the southeast zone on the grounds of discrimination, pursuant to Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

He said the federal government has neglected the geopolitical in terms of infrastructure and general presence, citing as an example the River Niger Bridge that has been left to collapse and the second Niger Bridge has not been built. Thus, he, the applicant, has felt isolated from other parts of the country and he fears a disaster on crossing the existing bridge.

The applicant is also seeking an order directing the federal government to forthwith put all its machinery, including but not limited to legal and political apparatus, in motion, with a view to urgently creating two additional states in the southeast geopolitical zone.

This, according to him, would bring a balance with the seven states in the northwest, and thereby bring to an end the discriminatory practices against the southeast zone in terms of legislative representation, political and judicial appointments and not federal allocation accruing to the zone.

A date for the hearing has not been fixed.

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