S’East Governors Move To End Killings

Governors and leaders of the South East geo-political zone yesterday condemned the growing spate of killings in the zone, vowing to bring the gruesome activities of unknown gunmen to a halt.

Rising from a one-day meeting in Enugu, the governors and leaders of the zone also deplored the weekly Monday sit-at-home order by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

Chairman of the SouthEast Governors’ Forum and governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, said the governors and people of the zone must do everything within the law to ensure that there is no further sit-at -home in the zone and people are allowed to freely move about in the zone.

Umahi disclosed that the meeting also agreed that the South East Ebube Agu security outfit be launched in all the Southeast states and laws passed in various states in the zone before the end of 2021.

He said they agreed to support the election in Anambra State and directed security agencies to ensure peaceful polls in the state come November 6th, 2021.

The meeting, he further disclosed, agreed to support security agencies to restore peace in the South East.

Accordingly, he noted that the governors and the leaders mandated clergymen, Bishops, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Ohanaeze and traditional rulers to continue to dialogue with the youths.

Umahi stated: “The governors and leaders of the Southeast condemned the killings in the region and have agreed to join hands with security agencies to stop killings.

“The meeting condemned the sit-at-home orders which are mostly issued by our people in diaspora who do not feel the pains.

“In view of the information that even IPOB had cancelled the sit-at-home, the meeting resolved that the governors and all the people of the Southeast to do everything within the law to ensure that there is no further sit-at-home in the Southeast and that people are allowed to freely move about in the zone.”

Also present at the meeting were governors of Enugu, Ifeanyi Ugwuany; Imo Hope Uzodimma; former Enugu State governor, Okwesilieze Nwodo; former deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu; former president-general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Nnia Nwodo; Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe; Senate minority leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe; deputy minority leader of the House of Representatives, Toby Okechukwu, and chairman of the Enugu State Traditional Rulers’ Council, Lawrence Agubuzu, among others.

Resolution of the governors and leaders from the zone came two day after the Igbo National Movement (INM) had challenged the five state governors of the zone to rise from their slumber and deal with those causing the destruction of lives and properties in Igboland.

National coordinator of INM, Anthony Olisa Okolo, alongside other leaders made the demand in a statement issued in Owerri on the continued killings in the South East region, especially the murder of Chike Akunyili, the husband to the former minister of Information, the late Dora Akunyili.

They said if nothing was done urgently, a time would come when Igbo sons and daughters would not be able to travel to the zone.

INM urged the governors to wake up from their slumber and take charge as chief security officers of their respective states.

Leadership News