ENLARGEMENT of council of the Eastern States to include the South-South states of Edo and Delta will give the group a solid base and clout to pursue its goals, Rivers State Governor Peter Odili, has said.

Speaking to journalists in Port Harcourt, Odili argued that a larger council which would include the two states could be stronger and better positioned to pursue their common goals.

The council of Eastern states is a new organisation made up of leaders of thought in the defunct Eastern Region, comprising Igbo states, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Bayelsa and Rivers to pursue a common goal for people of the area.

The South-East and South-South have each been canvassing to produce the next president in 2003, although President Olusegun Obasanjo, a south westerner, is believed to be in serious contention for a second term.

"Zones have become a political reality for our people and if we harness all these assets, resources and forces together the sky will be the limit for he people of eastern states," Odili said.

He called on the people of the old Eastern Region to form a common front and lay a solid foundation for the future as a way of healing "wounds of the past".

The wounds the governor referred to, was the Nigerian Civil War which claimed the lives of about two million Igbo with thousands of their buildings seized in Port Harcourt.

Odili described the location of people of the region and their endowments as a providential rather than an accident of creation, harping on the importance of the eastern states in the political equation of the country.

He pledged the support of the government and people of Rivers State to the council, commending its leadership for its visionary ideas, adding that the body was "well-directed, correct and well-programmed for the good of the people".

The chairman of the council, Chief Matthew Mbu, said the body was out to pursue a fair deal and an equitable distribution of resources to every segment of the country.

He decried the level of environmental degradation in the Eastern Region and urged the Federal Government to address the issue as a matter of urgency.

"Also speaking, the chairman of the council, retired Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, stressed the need for people of the area to come together to pursue a common destiny."

That the Akwa Ibom governor traced his ancestry to Aro in Abia State is disarmingly interesting! Its really a small world for all the Biafrans.

I agree with you that the churches and their synods should get involved in high profiling their support for self determination thru Biafra Actualization. I believe with you also that we Biafrans will be travelling with Biafra passport sooner than we expected.