Posted by By CHIDI NNADI on
As the Joint Committee on the Review of the Constitution (JCRC) gets set to submit its report, fresh facts have emerged that the majority of Nigerians particularly in the north rejected the third term agenda.
As the Joint Committee on the Review of the Constitution (JCRC) gets set to submit its report, fresh facts have emerged that the majority of Nigerians particularly in the north rejected the third term agenda.
Revealing this at a press conference in Lagos yesterday, a member of the committee, Katsina zone, Senator (Dr) Bode Olowoporoku, said out of the 62 memoranda its committee got in the zone during the public hearing, 60 were opposed to the third term bid. The Katsina zone comprises seven states in the North.
So, as the committee moves over to Port Harcourt, Rivers State today, Olowoporoku said he would table what he saw in Katsina, saying it did not matter what the final report from the secretariat would be like.
His words: "When this thing is being discussed, I will tell them what I saw in Katsina. I don't know of other zones. Of about 62 memos we got, 60 were opposed to third term," saying that if the report is doctored, he would go to the floor of the Senate to say what he saw in Katsina zone.
Daily Sun had on February 28 exclusively reported that 72 per cent of Nigerians rejected the third term project going by the collation in Abuja of the public hearings report.
Senator Olowoporoku representing Ekiti South Constituency who was expelled by the PDP from the party had called the press conference to raise alarm on what he called state terrorism in Ekiti.
He lamented that since 2003, over 30 people have been killed or assassinated in Ekiti State while thousands have been rendered homeless with their houses pulled down by the state government.
The climax, he said, was when last Friday his own house was destroyed.
"When I learnt that he (Fayose) wanted to demolish the fence and front houses to give way to this so-called dualisation, I went to the Federal High Court of Akure to enforce my fundamental human rights for compensation under Section 44 of the 1999 Constitution.
"The Federal High Court made judgement that the fence and the two front houses must not be destroyed until the compensation as determined now in the court has been paid," he said.
The senator further alleged that when last Thursday the state governor ordered caterpillars and thugs to demolish the place, he contacted his lawyer and the Commissioner of Police who reminded the governor of the court judgement and the consequent contempt.
But the next day, Friday, he said, the governor threw away all cautions and mobilised over 500 mobile policemen with caterpillars with the policemen given orders to shoot those who come to oppose the demolition.
"The policemen rained bullets into my house and even into the main building, which is about 50 metres to the main road. The caterpillars demolished the two houses (one bungalow and one storey building) at both ends of the fence," he said.
Olowoporoku said the atrocities going on in Ekiti were not hidden just as the killers and perpetrators are known, adding that several petitions have been written to the Office of the Inspector General of Police on the crises.
"Even in few cases when Inspector General of Police ordered arrest and wanted to commence investigation, he had always been ordered by PDP leadership and presidency to stop such investigation," he alleged.
The senator also accused the governor of going after his assistants, alleging that he had given orders that his assistants be shot at sight by the police.
"One of my assistants had been shot in the legs and carried away. Indeed, yesterday (Saturday) night, mobile policemen pursued another political assistant of mine, Mr Adeniyi Adedipe to Ikere and the man escaped into a bush. The mobile policemen continued to shoot into the bush and surrounded the bush with guns till 1a.m. this morning (yesterday). The man escaped in the bush to Akure," he said.
He said that what had been happening in Ekiti State are now too much for the people to bear, saying "we Ekiti people are praying for God's intervention to stop this so-called democracy either by putting Ekiti under State of Emergency or military intervention or United Nations intervention, just any regime that can free the people.