ENUGU—THE meeting of South East stakeholders convened in Enugu, yesterday, to resolve the protracted industrial dispute between governors of the zone and members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, suffered a setback as the leadership and members of ASUU stormed out of the meeting.

The meeting which commenced about 2:00 p.m. was attended by the five South East governors, Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu, and other members of the National Assembly from the South East, top politicians, church leaders, traditional rulers, Vice Chancellors of state universities in the zone, students’ union leaders as well as other stakeholders in the zone.

Few minutes into the meeting which was held behind closed doors at the Nike Lake Resort Hotel, leaders of ASUU were seen trooping out of the hall grumbling and expressing anger over the decision of the governors to disallow their national leaders from participating in the meeting.

Chairman of the South East Governors’ Forum and Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi had announced to the participants that only South East stakeholders (Igbo) were allowed to partake in the dialogue and asked the national leadership of ASUU and Non-Academic Staff of Universities, NASU, who were already seated to leave.