Posted by By Rotimi Ajayi & Emmanuel Aziken on
TWENTY-SIX state governors yesterday endorsed the third term agenda under what they called 'immediate and comprehensive amendment of the 1999 Constitution.
ABUJA - TWENTY-SIX state governors yesterday endorsed the third term agenda under what they called 'immediate and comprehensive amendment of the 1999 Constitution." Some governors, natably Lagos and Adamawa, however, kicked against the agenda with Governor Boni Haruna of Adamawa walking out of the Governors' Forum meeting held in Abuja on its amendment.
Sources at the meeting said the pro-third term governors had their way with little or no opposition.
Members of other opposition All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) in the National Assembly have already decided to boycott the activities of the Senator Ibrahim Mantu-led Joint Constitution Review Committee.
Besides, the ANPP members are considering legal action to contest the legality of the committee.
The governors rising from their Abuja meeting said the on-going amendment to the constitution by the National Assembly would be in the best interest of Nigeria.
The meeting lasted well over six hours and deliberated on issues such as meetings of zonal groupings, the 2003 electoral bill, and the on-going war on corruption by the Federal Government.
Addressing newsmen after the meeting, Governor Victor Attah of Akwa Ibom State said the governors had resolved to take a lead to ensure unity in the country. 'This has been quite a monumental meeting because as I said in the opening remark, there are very weighty issues that necessitated the holding of this meeting in the first place.
'I am glad to inform you that at the meeting, we took a goodwill message from Mr President in which he wished us a happy new year and in fact implored us as custodians of the constitution to look very carefully at what is going on in the polity and bring out solutions that we feel would help to move this country forward.
'Because of that we set agenda for ourselves which covered six items. We looked at the issues of zonal meetings, we looked at the issues of amendment to the constitution, the revenue allocation formula, the electoral bill and the EFCC and the hajj operations.
ANPP legislators threaten boycott
Meanwhile, ANPP members in the National Assembly are to boycott the activities of the Mantu-led Committee.
Legislators of the party in the Senate and the House of Representatives after a joint meeting last Thursday were said to have resolved to challenge the constitutionality of the Senator Ibrahim Mantu-led Joint Constitution Review Committee.
Senator Lawali Shuaibu, Senate minority leader and leader of the ANPP Senate caucus could not be reached last night but Senator Sani Sanmi (ANPP, Kebbi) confirmed the resolution in a telephone interview yesterday.
'We are determined to save this country from the clutches of those who want to impose illegality on us. This is not a decision to favour North or South. In fact I don't care where the President comes from, but he should come through a democratic and constitutionally acceptable process," Senator Sanmi said.