The senate has denied it forwarded its own copy of the amended draft constitution instead of the harmonised version to state houses of assemblies for ratification.
Members of the House of Representatives on Wednesday accused the senate of breach of trust, and therefore ordered the clerk of the National Assembly to withdraw the draft amended constitutions which were handed in to the state legislatures in an elaborate ceremony in Abuja last week.
More delay
“This cannot be true,” Ayogu Eze, the senate spokesman said in a release. He argued that the three documents the constitution amendment secretariat was asked to transmit to the various houses include: a copy of the harmonised version, a table showing the two versions passed by the Senate and House of Representatives respectively, and a copy of the report of the conference (harmonisation) committee of both chambers. “We are therefore at lost where the mix up, if any, would have arisen from.” Mr. Eze added.
Members of the House of Representatives raised the alarm following a publication in national dailies which suggested that the version of the draft amended constitution which some of the states have is not the harmonised copy. House of Representatives chairman of the Committee on Rules and Business, Ita Enang, had drawn the attention of his colleagues to publications in some national dailies indicating that the copy communicated to the state legislature was not the harmonized version but that of the Senate.
This development may delay the long anticipated amendment of the 1999 constitution which is apparently at the final stage.
History
Both legislative arms of the federal legislature, had on the onset of the amendment process disagreed over leadership titles fuelled by ego. They went their separate ways working on the constriction independently until June this when the two chambers passed a version of the amended constitution which a 14 member joint committee had agreed on.
Consequently, a copy of the document was, on June 15, presented formally to the state legislatures by the senate president to the chairman of the Conference of Speakers of the State Houses of Assembly, and Taraba State House of Assembly Speaker, Sylvanus Gbana at an elaborate ceremony at Sheraton Hotels and Towers, Abuja.
