Details have emerged as to why all memoranda submitted for the creation of new states failed the test of the Senate, as revealed by the report of the Senate Committee on Constitution review released last week.
Sunday Tribune was told that the decision of governors, who refused to allow elected local government structures in the councils worked against the agitators in meeting the requirement of the Constitution.
The 1999 Constitution as amended indicates that besides having the signatures of elected members of the Senate, House of Representatives and the state Houses of Assembly, a memorandum for the creation of state must also be accompanied by signatures of councilors elected at the local governments of the area seeking a new state.
It was gathered that a majority of state of the country currently operates the caretaker councils, thereby blocking the possibility of state creation agitators meeting the constitutional requirement.
Section 8(1) a-d of the 1999 Constitution stipulates the conditions for creation of new states. It states categorically that serving legislators and stakeholders from the area seeking a new state are to originate a request for new state to the National Assembly.
The report submitted by Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, indicated that of the 65 requests for states, only 17 attempted to meet the conditions, but they were failed by the fact that they could not muster the required signatures.
According to the report, the demand for some 17 states partially met the conditions stated by the Constitution.
The states which nearly met the conditions included Aba, Adada, Ado states, Apa state, Bori state,Edu state, Ghari state, Gurara; Hadejia; Ijebu; Katagum;Minji-Se;New Delta;Oduduwa, Oluwa Savannah and Sombreiro states.
“We wish to state that in respect of all the requests listed above that not all of the signatories are presently serving as ,members of the Senate, House of Representatives, state Assembly or Local Government councils as required by Section 8(1a) of the Constitution and in some cases the memoranda was received long after official close of submissions.
“As such, if the signatures of those that are no longer serving at the various legislative levels are removed, the signatures of the serving members will not satisfy the provisions of Section 8(1) (a)(i-iii).”
The committee thereby stated that it was constrained to proceed to the next level of state creation process, which is the referendum stage.
Details contained in the report also indicate that most of the agitators failed to either comply in full or partially with provisions of Section (1) of the 1999 Constitution.
A total of 65 requests for state creation were received by the Senate since the start of Constitution amendment process.
A table provided for the states indicated that the North Central had 14 requests, South West had 14, South South 15; North East 4, North West 9 and South East 9.
Source: Nigerian Tribune
