Following a meeting between the five South-East Governors in the country which held in Enugu on Monday, the state governors have assured the Ndigbo living in the northern part of the country that no harm shall come their way following the quit notice issued by the Arewa youth.
The five state governors met in Enugu on Monday for a closed door meeting where-after they revealed that they have been working closely with the Northern Governors’ Forum, the federal government, and other stakeholders to ensure that the quit notice which was handed down by the northern youth group does not cause the breakdown of law and order.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting which held at the Government House, Enugu, the chairman of the forum and Ebonyi State governor, Chief Dave Umahi, revealed that the South-east governors are in touch with the Northern governors for peace talks.
He further revealed that the governors adopted the Prof. Bart Nnaji’s Geometric Power Company’s power project in Aba, Abia State, stating that the project will serve as a model to jumpstart the economic integration of the zone.
The state governor said: “Ohanaeze Ndigbo briefed us, and of course we have been in touch with the federal government, we have been in constant touch with our colleagues, and Ohanaeze has also been in constant touch with our people in Northern Nigeria and we want to assure all our people that have been in Northern Nigeria that we are in constant touch and dialogue with the federal government and of course in liaison with the Northern Governors’ Forum to make sure that the lives and properties of our people are very secured, and on this development we will continue to monitor to make sure no Igbo man living anywhere in this country is living in fear or is disadvantaged or the live threatened.
“The geometric power company made a presentation to us on Aba power plant and we commend them very highly for bringing the project up to 99 per cent, of course they have completed the project, they are just renovating some of the injection stations of the plant. And we have adopted that power plant as a model for our regional integration. We commend them and we throw our weight behind the success of that project.
“In the same vein, we commend the Shell and her partner in the gas project at Asa, and we as governors of the South East states have proposed to build five mega industrial clusters, one in each state and we have signified interest to benefit from this Asa gas project and so we have set up a committee to liaise with the stakeholders in this respect. And I can assure you that this will assist the South-east very highly.
“We have also taken notice of a number of gas clusters in South-east and we have directed the economic team and the secretariat to get the list of the names and people that are in charge of the gas blocs so that we can discuss with them towards developing it and ensuring that we partner with them for the benefit of our people.”
The forum further backed the forthcoming Anambra state governorship election saying: “We have also, as a people at South-east Governors’ Forum, thrown our weight behind the November 2017 governorship election in Anambra State, and appeal to all stakeholders to ensure that we have a very peaceful election in the state.”