Leaders To Meet Buhari On Igbo Marginalization- Biafra Struggle

The meeting of Igbo leaders summoned yesterday by the South East Governors’ Forum, SEGF, to discuss the security implications of the agitations by members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, and the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, ended in Enugu with the leaders resolving to set up a delegation of Igbo elders to meet President Muhammadu Buhari on the marginalisation of Igbo in the country.

They also agreed to dialogue with members of the MASSOB and IPOB groups with a view to ending the protests now rocking the old Eastern region.

The two factions of Ohanaeze were not however, part of the meeting as they were not invited as the governors had reasoned that inviting any of them would have meant legitimising such faction.

The Enwo Igariwey leadership of Ohanaeze had exhausted its tenure while the Ralph Obioha faction was not properly elected even as it was now the turn of Enugu State to produce the new chairman of the pan- Igbo group.

Both MASSOB and IPOB members have been agitating for the release of the Director of Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, detained by security agents for running an illegal radio station.

A four-point communique read by Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, at the end of the meeting on behalf of his colleagues read, “We agreed that south-east governors should set up a committee to immediately address the impasse on Ohanaeze leadership. After a compassionate review of the recent MASSOB/IPOB agitations in the country, it was resolved that a committee be set up to dialogue with MASSOB,IPOB as well as the Federal Government with a view to finding a lasting solution to the issue.

“The elders also examined other issues including poor state of infrastructural facilities in the south-east, marginalization in federal appointments and other socio-economic issues that impact on the economic development of the south-east and resolved to support the decision of south-east governors to set up an economic council and urged them to interface with the Federal Government on remedial measures. A delegation of elders of the south-east was mandated to meet with the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

Earlier in his welcome address, Governor Lawrence Ifeanyi Ugwanyi of Enugu State, said the meeting was a follow up to the earlier meeting of the South- East governors on November 17.

Ugwanyi said, “the meeting is a follow up to the meeting of the SEGF that we held last Tuesday, November 17, 2015, in this venue during which we reached the following resolutions on some issues affecting us as a zone; To appoint a high level Economic Advisory Committee to harness the economic potentials of the people of the South East working together. The governors are concerned about the poor state of the Federal Government roads in the zone namely the Enugu – Onitsha, Aba- Ikot Ekpene , Owerri – Port Harcourt, Enugu – Port Harcourt, among others which need urgent intervention by the Federal Government.