By NewsBits
There is an indication that the Southeast Governors’ Forum might have relocated to Abuja, the nation’s capital. This development is coming as Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State has been elected as the Chairman of Southeast Governors’ Forum (SGF).
It was learnt that Governor Uzodimma was unanimously endorsed at a meeting of the SGF attended by all the governors from the zone in Abuja on Thursday. The BBC News Igbo reported that the other governors who attended the meeting included Chukwuma Soludo (Anambra); Alex Otti (Abia) Francis Nwifuru (Ebonyi ) and Peter Mbah (Enugu State).
NewsBits learnt that this is the first time since the existence of the SGF the governors would relocate from the headquarters of the forum in Enugu to meet outside the southeast zone. However, it was gathered that the development was not unconnected with the security situation in the South-East.
Southeast had been a hotbed of insecurity in the better part of the last two years, following increased agitations that resulted from the marginalisation of the South-East by the federal government, particularly during the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
NewsBits recalls that the forum, under the chairmanship of then Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State, had launched regional security outfit, known as Ebubeagu, with Gen. Umahi (rtd) as its coordinator.
However, due to lack of funding and proper coordination, the outfit did not see the light of the day, even as insecurity worsened in the region in the last two years. Even in Ebonyi and Imo State where the Ebubeagu security outfits exist, there’s the belief that they operate like a militia which the governors use to oppress and intimate their opponents.
