PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari and senators elected from the South-East geopolitical zones met on Wednesday, at the Presidential Villa, in what sources described as a bid to secure the release of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
Sources at the meeting also told the Nigerian Tribune that other issues raised at the meeting included the non appointment of citizens of South East extraction into sensitive positions in the administration.
Nigerian Tribune also gathered that the South-East senators, selected on the basis of one per state, were led to the villa by the chairman of South East caucus in the National Assembly, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe.
It was learnt that the meeting requested the president to take immediate steps to redress what they called “glaring non-appointment of people of South East into the National Security Council of the Federation.”
Sources confirmed that the issue of IPOB and Kanu were also discussed as well as the security problems in the region.
According to sources, the South East delegation also raised the issue of rampaging herdsmen, who had seized various farmlands in the zone.
On infrastructure, the delegation was reported to have highlighted the deplorable state of federal highways and poor funding of projects.
It was further learnt that a participant at the meeting told the president that “not up to 10 per cent of appropriated funds is released annually for the past 10 years, leading to worsening state of infrastructure in the region.
The lawmakers were said to have also demanded a standard gauge railway from Agbor to Onitsha, to meet up with the standard gauge of Warri to Lokoja rail.