How I escaped Kaduna train attack, by Obi of Onitsha
The Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Achebe, has said that he was billed to join the Abuja-Kaduna train attacked by bandits on Monday.
The attack, which left no fewer than eight passengers killed, saw many others injured while scores of the passengers were abducted by the assailants.
The monarch decried the increasing insecurity situation in the country.
The Ahamefuna event, tagged “the need for Nigerian Presidency from the Southeast Nigeria come 2023”, saw the gathering of such leaders as elder statesman Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu; Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo; Chief Achike Udenwa; former governors Enugu and Imo states; the Obi; former ministers; senators; clerics; traditional rulers and women and youth leaders, charging Southeast politicians to stand firm in demanding that their political parties zone the 2023 presidential tickets to the region.
In a communiqué read by the former chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, the leaders said that Nigerian president of Southeast extraction will put to an end the agitations for a separate republic.
The leaders also said that Nigerian president of Southeast extraction will usher in unity, peace and progress in the country.
They asked all the political parties, especially the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to zone their presidential tickets to the Southeast for the sake of equity and fairness, adding that without that, efforts at nation-building would be futile.
“That our case is sufficiently self evident and persuasive to jolt the conscience of the nation to do justice to our people.
“That citizens of the Southeast across all parties must work in unity to achieve the objective of Southeast Presidency in 2023.
“That political leaders of the Southeast should not, under any circumstances, compromise the determination of the Southeast to get the Presidency of Nigeria in 2023.
“That the people of the Southeast shall view with sternness any Southeasterner who works against this resolve.”
They noted that Southeast had supported other zones to produce the president of Nigeria, and in fairness, other zones should reciprocate by supporting the region in 2023 to produce the president.
