Designate South-east judicial capital, lawmaker urges FG

The Federal Government has been advised to designate South East the judicial capital of Nigeria.

A member of Abia State House of Assembly, Mr Nnamdi Ibekwe, said this on Tuesday, during the House plenary through a motion titled, “A matter of urgent national unity: making South East judicial capital of Nigeria,” stating that it would foster and strengthen national unity.

Ibekwe, who is the lawmaker representing Bende North State Constituency, stressed that doing so would help to instill and engender togetherness, accommodation, and integration, adding that several countries like South Africa, Sri Lanka, Benin, Bolivia, Chile,  Cote d’ Voire, Georgia, Malaysia, Netherlands and Swaziland all have multiple capitals.

Ibekwe, a Peoples Democratic Party PDP lawmaker, argued that these countries did so in a bid to fast-track development and, most especially, engender national integration and unity, adding that South Africa shared its capital thus, Pretoria (Executive) capital, Cape Town (Legislative) capital, and Bloemfontein (Judicial) capital.

”It is in order to ensure unity and accommodation at the end of the country’s apartheid era,” the lawmaker said, pointing out that whereas Abuja and Lagos were known as federal and economic capitals of the country, respectively, there is the need for a judicial capital in South East.

According to him, his motion aligns with the objectives of the National Orientation Agency in mobilising citizens to act in ways that promoted peace, harmony, and national development and urged the legislators from the South East to work in consonance with their colleagues to pass a similar motion and follow through, while calling on the governors and appointees in Federal Government from the zone to pursue the agenda vigorously.

Reacting, The Speaker, Mr Emmanuel Emeruwa, said, “The motion is a little bit complicated and a little hard for the layman to understand,” while some assembly members stated that the motion would first require an amendment of some sections of the 1999 Constitution, while others argued that it would involve the inputs of others states in the region.

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