Enugu Gov visits Tinubu, urges release of Kanu

•We’ll keep seeing President to let him know what’s happening –PDP G-5

By Egena Sunday Ode

Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, was a guest of President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock President Villa, Abuja on Thursday as politicians across political parties continue to pay homage to the seat of power.
Briefing newsmen after his meeting with the president, the governor said he asked Tinubu to consider the release of the leader of proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, who is being tried treason.
He said the release of the detained IPOB leader would be a demonstration of extension of hands of fellowship to his neighbours as well as a fulfilment of his promise in his inaugural speech that he would engender national healing and serve with compassion.
His words: “We also of course, talked about the release of Nnamdi Kanu. You know, that the South East has made a collective demand to have Nnamdi Kanu released. And we basically identified with that and request, Mr. President, who in his inaugural address promised the people that he’s going to engender national healing and he’s going to serve with compassion. So we’ve basically informed him that this would serve as a pointer to his administration’s extension of hands of fellowship to Neighbours.
The Enugu governor explained that his visit to the seat of power was to greet the President on his inauguration and seek partnership with the federation government to enable him fulfill his campaign promises.
“I came and frankly I brought to the President, the warm greetings and best wishes from the government and the people of Enugu state.
“But, above all, you may also know already that we made massive campaign promises to the people of Enugu. And we also have expressed humongous vision. We’ve taken a bold view of what the new group could achieve in the next four years, in terms of growing our economy from the current levels to $30 billion.
“And one of our core governance philosophy is to collaborate and to have partnership, and we have identified the federal government as our core partner. We have a number of dominant assets in Enugu which we believe partnering with the federal government, we’re able to transform them into productive assets.
“A lot of people do not know, but we have huge mineral resources in a new group. And these resources are sitting under our ground not being productive. So we believe with the partnership we’re trying to basically build with the federal government, we’re able to transform these assets into productive assets.
“Of course, you know that the growth level we have proposed is one that is going to be driven by private sector and private sector wants the ease of doing business and one of the core indicators of the ease of doing business is security and infrastructure.
So we also had that conversation with Mr. President,” he said.
On his recent pronouncement banning Monday sit-at-home across the state, Governor Mbah said:
“We have made a very strong announcement. We’ve banned sit at home on Mondays in Enugu. And obviously, what that means is that we will, of course, need to, you know, heighten our security, tackle the challenges that would flow from that, and, you know, essentially that’s what I have come to do.”
President Tinubu also met with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) G-5 comprising, former governors Nyesom Wike, Ifeanyi Uguwanyi, Samuel Ortom and Okeze Ikpeazu as well as Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State.
The group threw their weight behind opposition candidates in the February presidential election, leading to the defeat of the PDP.
Thursday’s meeting would be the third Wike had had with President Tinubu since his inauguration of the later on May 29.
Asked to state their mission to the seat of power, Governor Makinde said:
“Well, nation building is a very difficult task. You have to keep evaluating, you know what you’re doing, where you’re going? So, we have to keep seeing the President you know, to let them know what is happening.
“And for even the G-5, the integrity group, we also came to let the President know what we stood for: fairness, justice, and equity.”
Asked where their next political destination is, Makinde said: “We are going towards Mr. President, you know, coming with us on the route for fairness, for justice and for equity in Nigeria.”