Eight governors from Lagos, Zamfara, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Imo, Ekiti and Nassarawa states on Thusday shunned the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja, to pay a solidarity visit to Governor of Rivers state and Chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum, Chibuike Amaechi, in Port Harcourt. The Governors include Babatunda Fashola of Lagos, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti, Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo, Rauf Aregbesola of Osun and Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun. Those from Zamfara, Nassarawa and Imo states were represented by their deputies. The governors arrived the oil rich city around 11am and immediately went into a closed door meeting with Mr Amaechi and by 2pm their spokesperson, Dr. Fayemi addressed journalists saying their action was not to ”denigrate” the national economic council meeting, but to underscore the importance of security and felicitate with Amaechi over the crisis in Rivers state. “Some of our colleagues were here a couple of days ago. We are here because insecurity for us is a far more major concern to the people of Nigeria. You may be aware that today is National Economic Council Meeting we are supposed to be in Abuja, but our being here is not a denigration of that meeting in a way. It is just to stress the importance of our concern for the security of our citizens of Rivers State” Dr Fayemi stated. Amaechi To meet Jonathan He further revealed that the governors have agreed that Amaechi must meet with President Jonathan to brief him formally on the spate of insecurity in Rivers State. ” it is quite important for him to actually go and brief Mr President, who is our leader and the chief security officer of the country on the very-very challenging security situation here in Rivers State and we believe that our brother and our Chairman would give serious consideration to that concern that we have expressed to him.” Also speaking deputy Governor of Zamfara State, Muktar Anka said, “we, being progressive governors, we met with our chairman of governors forum and Rivers State governor. We are very happy that we met him in high spirits and it seems that he is popular and moving with his people and we are very happy with that. We have resolved and we advised him that he should meet with the president so that we can find a way out of this crisis which is avoidable. We believe that by meeting with Mr President will find a way out of solving this crisis in Rivers State and strengthen democracy in Nigeria”. Moral Authority Fayemi however lambasted the police for compromising and urged the Inspector-General to quickly investigate the matter with the view of restoring confidence in the security apparatus in the state. Besides that, the Governor said the presidency has a lot of role to play as well in the matter emphasizing that, ” for us we believe this is a matter that requires the moral authority of the President as well and it is about deepening this democracy and it is about ensuring that peace reigns, not just in Rivers State because we know that Rivers state is of concern to Governor Amaechi and the state of security in the entire country is of concern to him.” While condemning all the subversive tactics used by Amaechi’s opponents so far in the crisis, the governors called on all parties to sheathe their swords in order to help restore peace in the state. Media/pub. unit Edo youth congress
Posted on: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 09:19:05 +0000