The South-South Governors Forum and other leaders of the zone have demanded an unreserved apology from the Presidency for abruptly aborting a stakeholders meeting scheduled to hold in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Tuesday.
According to a statement signed by Kelvin Ebiri, Special Adviser on Media to the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, the presidency had fixed the Tuesday meeting with the stakeholders to discuss burning national issues affecting the region and the aftermath effects of the EndSARS protest.
The statement said that the Federal Government delegation was supposed to include all the ministers from the geopolitical zone and other persons.
Addressing South-South leaders at the Banquet Hall of the Rivers State Government House, Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa who presided over the session, disclosed that the botched meeting was called at the instance of the presidency, through the office of the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari.
He explained that the meeting time was adjusted twice from 11am to 1pm on Tuesday, on the excuse that President Muhammadu Buhari was meeting with Director of Department of State Services (DSS) and the Inspector General of Police, who were supposed to be part of the presidential delegation for the South-South meeting.
Okowa, who is also the Chairman of South-South Governors Forum, said he later got a call from the Chief of Staff to the President on Tuesday afternoon, announcing the eventual cancellation of the meeting.
Okowa was quoted as saying that he felt really disappointed that the region could be treated with such disdain.
OKowa was further quoted to have said that the people of the region have been embarrassed, disgraced and disrespected.
He stated that the South-South geopolitical zone is a very important component part of the nation and the governors felt insulted because the traditional rulers who had gathered for the meeting deserved to be revered.
“As governors, we feel very touched and very sad about what has happened. And having also listened to our youths, we can feel the anger. As a mark of respect for our people, because you are actually the stakeholders of our region, we felt it was necessary for us to consult with you before taking any decision, if we take our decision without consulting with you, then we would have added to the disrespect that has just been meted on you.
“We call for a public apology, not for the governors alone. We call for a public apology because this meeting was not called at our instance. It was called at the instance of the Presidency. The time was changed last night. We understood and we talked to our people. Some of us did not sleep in trying to put things together. We have gotten to a very bad start. So we are going to convey this message to the chief of staff to the president.
He added, “We deserve as a region unreserved public apology to the region, particularly to our traditional rulers and the leaders in this zone, which include our Christian leaders, opinion leaders, our women and our youths, and also the governors of the zone who were voted into office and that is the least that we expect for us to accept the (reconvening) of this meeting.”