Posted by By FRANCIS AWOWOLE-BROWNE, Abuja on
Former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Kanu Agabi has said that he was never recruited by President Olusegun Obasanjo to campaign for the now rested third term agenda or sent to discuss the issue with Vice-President Atiku Abubakar with a view to convincing him.
Former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Kanu Agabi has said that he was never recruited by President Olusegun Obasanjo to campaign for the now rested third term agenda or sent to discuss the issue with Vice-President Atiku Abubakar with a view to convincing him.
The Vice President had, in an interview with Daily Sun, published on Monday, claimed that Obasanjo sent Agabi and Prof. Jerry Gana to discuss the draft constitution amendment bill containing a provision for tenure elongation for the president sometime in 2003.
His words: 'I knew of third term three years ago. Yes, three years ago. When the president called me in the morning and said I am sending Prof. Jerry Gana and Kanu Agabi to you to discuss constitutional amendment with you. They came and it took us two hours to go through the amendments, and here was the issue of third term in it. I told them I am not for this, and I will fight it, take the message back to the president."
But Agabi, now Special Adviser to the President on Ethics and Good Governance, and Nigeria's Human Rights Adviser in a reaction Wednesday debunked the claim.
According to him, 'at no time did the President indicate to me his interest in what has become popularly called third term agenda. I have never been summoned to or participated in any meeting with the President or any other person at which such an agenda was discussed. I have never participated in the preparation of any document in which this agenda was canvassed and I have never taken part in the distribution of any such document."
The Special Adviser in an open letter to Abubakar maintained that he was not aware of the existence of such document, adding that ' the president never sent me, either alone or in company of Prof. Jerry Gana or any other person. I did not, either alone or in company of Prof. Jerry Gana or any other person, discuss any such agenda with you."
He argued that the draft amendment constitution which he discussed with Atiku did not contain, either expressly or by implication, any provision for a third term for president or any other person, contrary to the Vice-President's claim.
Mr. Agabi insisted that the document contained a provision for a single six-year term and this provision specifically excluded the president and all the governors who had been elected or were holding office under the 1999 constitution or any other previous constitution.