UPDATE: Why we visited Buhari- Senators

Senators from the South East zone who held a private meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari said they went to express their concern over issues affecting the region.

Senate President Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, led the senators to the meeting with Mr. Buhari in his office in Abuja on Wednesday.

Briefing State House correspondents’ shortly after the meeting, Mr. Ekweremadu said they especially raised concerns on the state of security and infrastructure in the south-east region.

“For us from the South-east, we believe that dialogue is better than any other form of engagement. So we decided to visit the President and present to him some of the concerns of the South East, including the issues of roads, general infrastructure, the rail and airports,” he said.

The Deputy Senate President said the delegation discussed the issue of insecurity in the South-east especially with regards to the activities of the Independent Peoples of Biafra, IPOB.

“We had a good conversation and he promised to look into the issues”, he said.

The Chairman of the South East Caucus in the Senate, Eyinnaya Abaribe, who also spoke with reporters said that the region was the most “short-changed” in the country.

He said Mr. Buhari promised to look into their complaints.

“We know that there are problems everywhere but we also believe that the south-east is the zone that is far more short-changed at this time than other zones.

“We also talked about the issue of appointments from the South-east, especially with respect to the National Security Council. The President also told us that governors of the South-east have also engaged him on the same problems,” Mr. Abaribe said.

The senator said leaders from the region would continue to engage with the government.

Other senators in the delegation include Sam Egwu, Hope Uzodinma, Andy Uba and Chukwuka Utazi.