From Fred Ezeh and Vikky Uba, Abuja
Rising insecurity and agitations for secession by different ethnic groups across Nigeria has attracted the attention of elder statesmen and other national leaders to a meeting in Abuja.
The meeting was organised by Interfaith Initiatives for Peace jointly led by the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, and Emeritus John Cardinal Onaiyekan, National Peace Committee chaired by General Abdulsalami Abubakar (Rtd).
Reporters were barred from taking part in the closed-door meeting which is expected to proffer solutions to the ongoing security challenges threatening the peace and unity of the country.
It was also an exploratory meeting on pressing issues of national unity, security, peace, integration, economic revitalisation and development, women and youth welfare and general progress
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Head of State General Abdulsalam Abubakar (retd), Sultan of Sokoto Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, Ooni of Ife Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi His Royal Majesty Prof Ortese Iorzua James Ayatse, Emeritus John Cardinal Onaiyekan President General (Ohanaeze Ndigbo) Prof George Obiozor and Afenifere leader Ayo Adebanjo were all in attendance.
Others sighted at the meeting are President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Ayuba Wabba, CAN General Secretary Joseph Daramola, JAMB Registrar Prof Ishaq Oloyede, Etsu Nupe Yahya Abubakar, former Minister of Agriculture Audu Ogbe, among several political and traditional rulers at the meeting.
Elder statesmen Edwin Clark is said to have arrived at the venue of the event, the Congress Hall of Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, but could not participate in the meeting because he could not climb the staircase to the meeting room.
