A former Senate Committee Chairman on Ethics, Privileges and Petitions, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, has said the continued refusal of the President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the South-East Development Commission bill which has been passed by the Senate is causing worry.

Anyanwu, during his presentation at the public hearing on the review of the 1999 Constitution in Owerri, Imo State, on Friday, said the commission would have taken care of the ongoing unrest and agitation in the zone had Buhari assented to the bill.

He also advocated an additional state for the South-East region, adding that marginalisation of the zone was unacceptable.

The ex-lawmaker said, “It is very obvious that this bill was passed by the National Assembly, but the continued denial of presidential assent is causing problems and contributing to regional unrest. Otherwise, the spate of agitations and calls for secession would have been lowered to its barest minimum. Therefore, there is an urgent need to give assent to this bill for immediate take-off.

“As Nigeria is passing through challenges occasioned by insecurity and bad leadership, various ethnic groups are agitating against marginalisation, hence the opportunity to lend inputs aimed at correcting, amending, adding and proposing areas of interest to be looked into in the ongoing 1999 Constitution review/amendment.”