Recently, there have been a number of attacks in the South-East by gunmen who attack security forces, scare locals, and kidnap people for ransom.
At Sunday's meeting, Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, and his Ebonyi State counterpart, Dave Umahi, were in attendance with the host governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, who was on hand to receive them.
Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State and Governor Professor Charles Soludo of Anambra State were noticeably absent.They were represented by their deputies, respectively.
This will be their first meeting for the year after they gathered in January 2022. They also met on June 11, 2021, when they had joint security deliberations with the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbeshola, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabour, and other service chiefs.
A communique will be issued at the end of the closed-door meeting. But sources expect the governors to also discuss the issue of the embattled leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, who is still being held in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS).
Kanu is being prosecuted by the Federal Government on various treason and terrorism-related charges.
Two weeks ago, the Appeal Court in Abuja dropped all charges against separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu after ruling that he had been illegally arrested abroad.
On October 13, Justice Oludotun Adefope-Okojie, who led the appellate court’s panel, held that the Federal Government broke local and international laws by forcibly re-arresting and returning Kanu to Nigeria.
However, in a ruling on Friday, Haruna Tsanami, leading a panel of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, ordered that the enforcement of the judgement releasing Kanu be put on hold.
The Federal Government had applied for the execution of the judgement to be suspended pending the resolution of its appeal filed at the Supreme Court.
