The Aba Ngwa People, the indigenous owners of Enyimba City, comprising Aba North and Aba South Local Government Areas, held a peaceful demonstration on Monday, the 27th of April, 2026, over what they termed political marginalisation and maltreatment.
The peaceful demonstration which started along Factory Road, Aba, saw the demonstrators in their multitude chanting as they marched to the house of Barr. Emeka Wogu, chairman of the South East Development Commission (SEDC), a prominent Aba Ngwa son and the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Abia South Senatorial District.
“We’ve dropped our request officially to the APC leader in Abia South and our leader and former minister, Emeka Wogu. Our message is simple; if anything happens to the APC tickets for Abia South Senatorial Zone, Aba North and Aba South Federal Constituency and all our three House of Assembly seats, we’ll hold him accountable,” the group led by its spokesperson, Ogechukwu Ogbonna, said.
They called on President Bola Tinubu, Governor Alex Otti and other top political leaders in the country to look into their history and urge their various political parties in the country to, as a matter of peace, equity and fairness, consider Aba Ngwa people for elective positions in the 2027 general elections.
With placards bearing inscriptions like ‘Aba is not for sale’, ‘All political parties must file the indigenous people of Aba for the Senate and House of Representatives’, ‘It’s our right to represent ourselves’, ‘We have capable hands to run all elective positions’, ‘Mr President, come to the aid of the indigenous people of Aba’, ‘We can’t be slaves in our land’, etc., the people demand to be allowed to represent themselves in elective positions.
Addressing newsmen, Ogechukwu Ogbonna, the spokesperson of the Aba Ngwa People, said that it is baffling that the Igbo Nation, which has been crying of marginalisation by other big ethnic nationalities in the country, are now busy giving deaf ears to the internal marginalisation the Aba Ngwa People are currently facing in the hands of their fellow Igbos.
“We’re here to remind our leader, Chief Emeka Wogu, that the Asiwaju mandate everyone is talking about today came as a result of equity, and he, as a leader of the APC, should start with his own party to ensure equity.
“We’re demanding that all the political parties must field Aba Ngwa candidates for all the elective positions, from Senate, House of Representatives, House of Assembly and all other elective positions in the 2027 elections.
“The Aba La Ohazu people, as well as our brothers in Osusu, Ogbor, and other towns that make up Aba South and Aba North LGAs, have been turned to second-class citizens in our land. Currently, our federal constituency is occupied by someone from Igbere, in Bende LGA. In his own federal constituency, they’re equally in charge.
“So, are we non-entities or what? What do these people take us for? Is it fair that since the creation of Abia State, no Aba Ngwa man or woman has been given the opportunity to represent us in our own senatorial zone called Abia South?
“For record purposes, Abia South Senatorial Zone has three Federal Constituencies, namely, Obingwa-Osisioma-Ugwunagbo Federal Constituency, Ukwa East-Ukwa West Federal Constituency and Aba North-Aba South Federal Constituency.”
Ogbonna described what he tagged the ‘subjugation of the Aba Ngwa people’ as deliberate, stressing that the whole Southeast has refused to make it a topical issue, adding that henceforth, Aba Ngwa have decided that they will not be deprived again and will take their destinies in their hands.
“From the federal constituencies you will realise we have six LGAs in Abia South because Osisioma is actually in Abia Central when we talk about senatorial zones. So, out of the three federal constituencies, only one has been denied their rights to go to the Senate, and that is ours, the Aba North-Aba South Federal Constituency.
“For close to 20 years, one man from the Obingwa-Osisioma-Ugwunagbo Federal Constituency has been representing us, and as the 2027 election approaches, the same man is contesting again with his own brothers planning to take tickets of other political parties to go to the Senate again.”
Ogbonna said that the Aba people are not asking for too much but simply to represent themselves, just as other Igbo clans are given opportunities to take leadership positions in their own land.
“Today, even in our own federal House of Representatives seat, we’ve also been denied the right to represent ourselves again, as the whole positions are occupied by strangers while we have capable people neglected and treated as though we don’t exist.
“We’re not demonstrating today to beg them; we’re demonstrating to inform them that we’re tired. No appointments from both federal and state because none of our people are there. We cannot continue or leave like this.”
The Aba Ngwa people further said that they do not have any problem with visitors that have settled in their land and are doing their various legitimate businesses, stressing that it is in their DNA to always welcome and treat people like their own.
They, however, called on everyone to look deeply at the marginalisation of the Aba Ngwa people without any form of bias and put themselves in the shoes of the Aba Ngwa people and see if they can accept the dehumanisation ongoing against the Aba Ngwa people.
“We call on our fellow Igbos from all the five South East states; they’re our friends, our neighbours and even our in-laws. Let them put themselves in our shoes. Let them publicly say that what’s happening in Aba Ngwa is fair.
Can these several decades of marginalisation take place in their own cities? We ask them to kindly look at this and see if we’re asking for too much.”
He urged every right-thinking person to see the grievances of the Aba Ngwa people and speak out, stressing that “after seeing what’s happening to the Aba Ngwa people, any Igbo man speaking against Nigeria’s marginalisation of the Igbos without seeing anything wrong in the internal marginalisation of the Aba Ngwa people is nothing but a hypocrite.”
