Presidency Must Apologise For Disgracing Us, S/South Govs Fume After Buhari’s CoS Cancelled Meeting

South-South governors have reacted angrily to the cancellation of a scheduled meeting between a presidential delegation and leaders from the region on Tuesday.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Ibrahim Gambari, reportedly cancelled the meeting at the last minute after initially postponing the time of the meeting twice.

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It was learnt that the meeting, which was summoned by the presidency, was cancelled while the South South leaders, including traditional rulers and religious leaders, were already seated.

The presidency was said to have called the meeting to discuss some pressing issues affecting the region.

Reacting in a statement on Tuesday, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State said the South South leaders felt insulted and therefore called for unreserved apology from the presidency.

“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.

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“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 reconvene of this meeting,” said Okowa.

Among prominent South South leaders present at the scheduled meeting were Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River; Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom; Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State; and Godwin Obaseki of Edo State.

Others were the National Chairman of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga and former President, Nigerian Bar Association, Onueze Okocha.

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