Senators from the South East zone met with the leadership of the National assembly over the exclusion of the zone in the $22.7bn loan approved by the Senate.
Vanguard reports that the Senators entered into a marathon meeting with the the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, to express their grievances over the action.
The report stated that the meeting which was attended by the Leader of the Caucus, former Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu and the Senate Minority leader, Enyinanya Abaribe started at about 2:30pm on Thursday.
Although details of the meeting is not out yet, informed sources said it was not unconnected with the total exclusion of the South East Zone in the $22.7 Billion loan.
A source told Vanguard that “the meeting is to register their grievances over the mistreatment of the South East region in the latest loan.
“Recall that the South East Region was excluded from the first Chinese loan for the railway. I think that was nearly $2 Billion.
“The Eastern Railway Corridor, which runs from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri and from the South South through North Central to the North East was also excluded from the second Chinese loan for railways. That was over $5 Billion. And now this one”.
After the meeting, the South East Senators crossed over to the House of Representatives, where they held a closed door meeting with the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila.
The report added that the Senators met at Ekweremadu’s Apo residence from Wednesday night till the early hours of Thursday where they collectively resolved to take all legitimate steps to register the region’s displeasure and seek redress.
The Senators were still meeting with Gbajabiamila and some other Principal Officers of the House as at the time of filing this report.
