Senate To Reconsider Rejected Clauses In Revised Constitution

ABUJA, July 16, (THEWILL) - An apparently miffed Senate on Friday made its intention to retable clauses in the amended constitution that were rejected by some State House of Assemblies.

Recall some State Assemblies objected to some important clauses in the revised document, which was formally returned to the National Assembly on Friday.

Nonetheless, the upper legislative chamber assured through its spokesman, Senator Ayogu Eze (PDP) that it would collate and analyze the resolutions of the State House of Assemblies in the next two weeks.

Briefing journalists shortly after the formal presentation of the resolution by the Conference of Speakers, he said; "We are now going to the next stage of picking up those areas that met the requirement of the two thirds majority and there are areas that fall short, and if we feel strongly about them, we will start the process of reprocessing them for amendments but once we finish this one, we will go on to deal with other matters regarding the creation of states.

"Since Nigerians are clamouring for the creation of additional states, the National Assembly has taken the matter very seriously adding that if the reports met the requirements and procedures that had been set out by the Constitution, the Federal Legislature would go further to prove to Nigerians that States can be created in a democratic dispensation," he said.

However, Senator Eze affirmed that; "with the presentation by the State Houses of Assembly, the Constitution has been amended to the extent that some Sections had been passed by two thirds of the State Assemblies, unlike other Bills, the amendment of the Constitution does not require the assent of the President.

"The process does not require the assent of the President or any other process. Technically, the Constitution has been amended. The Sections that received two thirds stand part of the Constitution and the Sections that failed to get two-thirds will not be part of the Constitution", he added.

Earlier, Chairman of the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Hon. Istifanus Gbana submitted the resolutions of the 36 States Houses of Assembly on the 1999 Constitution amendment to the leadership of the National Assembly saying that they regarded the exercise as one of the most important national assignment in the nation's political history.