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Speaking at the Forum of News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)in Abuja, the Chairman of the Council, Igwe Samuel Asadu said the request was part of a decision reached by the council at its last meeting.
According to him, the request for an additional two states is to address the imbalance in state creation, as the southeast zone had only five states.
He said: ”At a meeting, which was well attended by the traditional rulers in the zone, we agreed that we would accept any state creation from any part of the eastern states.
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“We are united in this struggle. We have five states in the southeast, so we need to have two more states to be even.
“But whatever we get, we thank the president. We are at his mercy and God bless him for that.
“So when the state is given to us, we will endorse it. It does not matter where it comes from, it does not matter whose lawmaker sponsored the bill."
On the clamour for constitutional roles for the traditional institutions, Asadu said: ”We want to have some constitutional relevance, some constitutional powers.
”Our monthly release of five per cent of the local government allocation to traditional rulers in the state has not been given by state governments.
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“Traditional rulers play an important role in communicating government policies and programmes to members of the community,” he said.
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