Posted by By BASHIR UMAR, Abuja on
Senators came to near fisticuffs Tuesday following an attempt by pro-third term members to smuggle some alien clauses in favour of the elongation of the tenure of state governors into the bill earlier presented.
Senators came to near fisticuffs Tuesday following an attempt by pro-third term members to smuggle some alien clauses in favour of the elongation of the tenure of state governors into the bill earlier presented.
In anticipation of debate on the constitution review report submitted by the Senator Ibrahim Mantu Committee, a journal was placed on senators' seats early Tuesday morning. However, the prying eyes of some senators, mostly from the opposition parties, detected that new things had been added to the report. The anti-third term senators protested, shouting 'thieves, thieves, thieves.".
To calm frayed nerves, Senate President Ken Nnamani declared that 'the abnormal inclusion of some items into the proposed amendment has been stepped down".
After the rowdy session, the anti-third term senators, led by Senator Uche Chukwumerije, addressed the press on what they described as 'reckless lawlessness" by the pro-third term agents.
'Today is a very, very sad day in the life of the Senate. What happened this morning is the first test of the perfidy, meanness and reckless lawlessness which lie ahead for the legislature and the nation as we push the battle for constitutional amendment," Chukwumerije said, while thanking God that the vigilance of the legislators and the timely intervention of the Senate President saved the situation.
'We got to the Senate this morning only to be given a journal which contained a bill for an Act to amend the constitution of the country. This bill is a mutilation of an earlier copy which was given to us last week and which had already passed its first reading", he said.
According to him, the second part of section 182 i.e, tenure elongation for governors and other amendments, which were contained in the original bill, attracted 'a spontaneous angry protests by senators," adding: 'The rogue copy was, however, discarded by president of the Senate, who announced that the original copy be maintained".
He said although 'this coup was foiled, we invite the public to note the implication of this incident, which is an attempt at disrupting and destabilizing democracy in the country".
Chukwumerije, therefore, said the authors of third term are bent on using the weapon of illegalities, which, he said, they have consistently used, to achieve the goals of constitution amendment using the National Assembly as a rubber stamp.
He said 'as these people have no respect for due process, law and morality as long as their need is served, we repeat our warning that those treading the path of illegalities to reach their goals are digging the grave of our nascent democracy".