• Cabinet reshuffle: Akobundu claims Tinubu short-changes the Southeast
• Says PDP will sweep Abia council poll

Senator Austin Akobundu, who represents Abia Central Zone under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has slammed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for allegedly excluding the South East geopolitical zone in the latest cabinet reshuffle.

He said the president’s actions perpetuate regional disparities in representation.

This comes after another Abia Senator, Enyinnaya Abaribe, who represents Abia South, accused President Tinubu of flaunting “renewed festivity” in the South East.

Abaribe was at fault for the cabinet reshuffle that saw the appointment of Bianca Ojukwu as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.

While Tinubu dismissed five ministers, he appointed seven ministers and appointed 10 ministers to new offices.

The President removed the Minister of Women Affairs, Uju-Ken Ohanenye, from her post.

Reacting, Abaribe said the removal of a South-East Minister and replacement with another minister “does not feel like progress”.

Speaking to The Guardian in Abia State, Akobundu said that in the reorganized Federal Executive Council (FEC), the South-East region still has one minister per state as before the change, while some regions are given more ministers. more than one.

The senator lamented that each South-East state still has one minister as constitutionally stipulated and there is no additional tagged district minister, given that the seven-state North West and the six-state South West have an additional three ministerial seats. Each of them has 10 and nine ministers respectively.

He also said that the North-East and North-Central regions, comprising six states each, have two extra ministerial seats, while the South-South region, comprising six states, has eight ministers each, although it has been given an additional territorial mandate. minister.

He said: “The south-east seems to be missing. When the first appointments were made, we clearly observed that the Southeast had deficiencies in regional representation. Moves were made in the Senate to draw the executive’s attention to this injustice. “Now that this is happening again and we have studied and analyzed the spread, we will continue to raise our awareness.”

While Akobundu was also reacting to other issues in Abia and his constituency, including the perpetual dilapidation of the Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene federal road passing through the Ikwuano axis and the Abia State council election scheduled for November 2, 2024, he, however, said that work on the 51 kilometer road would soon resume He announced that he received assurance from the Minister of Public Works that he would do so.

He, however, predicted PDP victory in the scheduled council poll despite opposition in the state, saying: “We are not afraid of the Labor Party (LP)-controlled state government. We will participate in the parliamentary elections. We encouraged our candidates to showcase their talents by going through the necessary processes to ensure their full participation.