Lawmakers elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the North East have constituted the “North East State Assembly Legislators Forum” to fast-track development in the region.
Rising from a one-day maiden meeting of the forum at the weekend in Gombe State, the lawmakers from the six states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe constituted a 13-member caretaker committee that will run the affairs of the forum for three months.
Opening the meeting, Speaker of the Gombe State House of Assembly, Abubakar Mohammed Luggerewo, said the idea of the forum was for the APC legislators from the North East to join hands and speak with one voice in terms of attracting development to the zone.
He decried that people of the zone were left behind in the area of development, hence forming the forum to change the narrative and chart a common cause.
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The Minority Leader of the Adamawa State House of Assembly, Suleiman Umar Alkali, noted that the North East was left behind in many areas of developmental projects.
He said lawmakers under the APC decided to come together to chart a common forum that would bring development to the people of the zone irrespective of religion or party affiliation.
In his remark, the forum’s Chairman, Saddam Bello Saleh, pledged to do his best to ensure that the forum succeeded in its mandate of rescuing the zone from its current predicament.
Saleh, who is the Deputy Speaker of the Gombe assembly, added that the lawmakers were committed to speaking with one voice and moving the zone forward in terms of development.