People of Afikpo South local government area in Ebonyi state have demanded that the name of the council should be changed to Edda local government council, to reflect their true identity.
In a submission at the Enugu sitting of the Senate Committee on Constitution review, on Wednesday, Chairman and Secretary of Edda Identity Project, EDIP, Engr. Samuel Ndukwe and Mr Ikenna Emewu, respectively, on behalf of the socio-cultural group said that the name of their Council area was erroneously named through a military fiat when it was carved out from the old Afikpo local government area in1991
In their petition, the EDIP group revealed that whereas so many LGAs in Nigeria, including Afikpo North, is made of several towns and clans of different people, the Afikpo South LGA (Edda) has a peculiarity of homogeneity, 100 per cent peopled by only the Edda Clan.
They lamented that instead of giving them their proper name, Edda, the military never consulted the people of Edda or even Afikpo prior to the naming for them to say what their LGA should be called and was dubbed Afikpo south.
The group submitted that because the LGA in question is listed in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, “we write to ask that your distinguished Committee consider our petition to change the name of the Afikpo south LGA to Edda LGA.”