On Monday night, the governors of the area and the leaders of the southeast under the umbrella of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo decided to request a meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to discuss the level of insecurity in the zone.
Elders from the area were escorted to the meeting by Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, which took place at the Imo State Governor’s Lodge in Asokoro, Abuja.
The host was Senator Hope Uzodinma, governor of Imo State, who also serves as chairman of the South East Governors and the Progressive Governors Forum. His Ebonyi State counterpart, Francis Nwifuru, was also present.
The Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) ordered a sit-at-home order, which Chief Iwuanyanwu noted has paralyzed economic and social activities in the southeast region. Speaking to journalists after the meeting, which lasted more than four hours, he said the governors agreed to work together and have highlighted strategies to address the sit-at-home order.
Regarding the tactics to be used, he said nothing.
However, he insisted that insecurity was a national issue, not just a regional one, and that everyone needed to pitch in outside of the zone to address it.
“Frankly, I am not going to tell you the specifics of what we want to do,” he said. The Southeast governors cannot address the issue of insecurity on their own. We have decided that the governors, lawmakers, and Ohanaeze leadership should contact the President.
“The South East problem is too huge, too significant for the governors alone. Since it affects Nigeria, the president would support the governors.
The governor of Imo state made a similar point, noting that security is on the federal list of priorities that cannot be handled just by the five governors in the southeast.
He said that, in his capacity as the head of the Southeast Governors Forum, he would be escorting his colleagues to the White House in order to meet with Tinubu and solicit his cooperation in restoring peace to the area.
“The Federal Government has helped us in the past, but we believe that it can do more,” In order to eliminate the insecurity in the region, we also decided today to request the President’s assistance, among other things. We will thus be organizing a visit to the president to discuss at some point in the near future. We can’t do some things very well without the help of the federal government. Security is on the Exclusive List and can only be deployed when necessary by the federal government.
When asked by reporters why the governors of the states of Enugu, Anambra, and Abia were not there, Governor Uzodinma responded that although the meeting was impromptu, it had the support of his colleagues.
That’s not a problem; we decided to hold this meeting on the spot, he replied. Remember that I am the Chairman of the South East Governors Forum and that I speak for everyone.
Serving Senators and members of the House of Representatives from the region were present in addition to the Ohanaeze leadership and the two governors.
