Chris Okpoko
An assemblage of accomplished political leaders and entrepreneurs of South Eastern extraction, under the aegis of the Eastern Conscience Group, has cautioned against the unwarranted spreading and publication of falsehoods against the management of the South East Development Commission by some persons over claims of the procurement of a phantom and nonexistent loan facility by the commission.
In a press statement signed by the convener of the group, Evangelist Myke Ikoku and forwarded to the Journal Nigeria by Barrister Gozie Nwachukwu, the group cautioned that this was a very uncharitable way to engage with this long-awaited Igbo-centered developmental initiative by the current Federal Government, facilitated by a son of the soil, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu.
They further called on all well-meaning Ndi Igbo at home and in the diaspora to shun any overtures or attempts to undermine this rare opportunity to self-implement the unfulfilled 3Rs (Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, and Reintegration) promised to the region after the gruesome civil war.
“We cannot under any guise become our own enemies. We have it on good authority that the commission has not received its budgetary allocation because the National Assembly extended the implementation of the 2024 budget till June 2025.”
Ikoku also stated that, upon close interaction and inquiry into the activities of the commission, it was discovered that the management of the commission has been making personal sacrifices to keep the business of the commission running thus far.
“We therefore plead that all hands should contribute their own quota to ensure that this commission of hope and restoration of the infrastructural deficit in our dear Igboland fulfils its mandate.”
The group thanked the management of SEDC for its transparency and willingness to engage critical stakeholders in the zone for guidance and partnership to assist them in delivering on their task to rehabilitate, reconstruct, and reintegrate South Eastern Nigeria infrastructurally and economically.
