Forum frowns at the absence of govs. in meeting

The concerned Igbo Stakeholders Forum, a pressure group, on Friday held meeting in Enugu criticised the absence of four governors from the southeast at the Southern Governors’ Forum meeting held on Thursday.

Leader of the group, Mr Chukwuma Okenwa, told newsmen in Enugu that there was no justifiable reason for the governors to absent themselves at a meeting of such magnitude.

He said the absence of the governors at the meeting was particularly wrong because the region was battling socio-economic and security concerns.

The challenges, he explained stemmed from the sit-at-home order issued by the proscribed separatist group, the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra.

“The absence of the governors of Abia, Ebonyi, Imo and Anambra brings to question the commitment of these governors to the growth and advancement of the southeast more so when the meeting held in their geopolitical zone.

“It is very disturbing the conspicuous absence of the Anambra governor, Chief Willie Obiano, or a representative from the state at the meeting,’’ he said.

Okenwa added that the body language of the governors in recent times left no one to doubt that they have magnified their interests above that of the region and that of Nigerians of southeast extraction.

“Their gaze at the forthcoming elections in 2023 is becoming an unbearable distraction for them in delivering their mandate to the people,’’ he stressed.

He said the group was beckoning all Nigerians of southeast extraction, regardless of political party affiliation to unite and formidably negotiate a favourable space in the political scheme of things.