Northern governors represented by Governor of Borno state and Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Kashim Shettima, yesterday met with a group of Northern elders and key leaders of the coalition of Arewa groups at a closed door meeting that lasted four hours.
The meeting is parts of efforts to have the coalition announced the withdrawal of their quit notice against Igbos, which would elapse on October 1st.
“The meeting, which is the third since July was at the instance of some Northern governors, who mandated Shettima to engage the coalition with a view to preventing possible outbreak of violence in the event hoodlums take advantage of quit notice to perpetuate violence by the time the ultimatum expires on October 1st “ Shettima’s spokesman, Isa Gusau said in a statement.
The meeting which began at about 2:30pm lasted till 6:30pm at the Borno Governor’s Lodge in Asokoro, Abuja behind closed doors.
The meeting was attended by members of the Northern Elders Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi, Alhaji Sani Zango Daura, Air Marshall Al-Amin Daggash, AVM Mukhtar Mohammed, Professor Yima Sen and
Dr Hakeem Baba Ahmed who represented the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation.
Key leaders of the coalition of Arewa groups, Yerima Shettima, Ashir Sherrif, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, Aminu Adam, Balarabe Rufai and leaders of other groups in the coalition, were also in attendance.
“The meeting ended on positive note while the Arewa coalition is expected to meet members of the AbdulSalami Abubakar-led National Peace Committee, who invited them for a meeting” Gusau added.
The governors had held three separate meetings with leaders of the Arewa coalition in Kaduna, Abuja and Maiduguri before yesterday’s meeting that included elders.
At the yesterday’s meeting, Shettima and the Northern elders also spoke extensively on serious problems bedeviling the northern Nigeria, especially Boko Haram insurgency, backwardness in education resulting for high level of out-of-school-children.
