Gombe Speaker debunks allegation of failing to convene house for Fifth alteration of 1999 constitution
Gombe State House of Assembly Speaker, Abubakar Luggerewo, has denied speculations that he had refused to convene members for the fifth alteration to Nigeria’s constitution.
Our correspondent reports that there were indications that the house may miss the 15th September 2022 deadline slated for the return of houses’ decision.
Recall that the National Assembly transmitted to the 36 states Houses of Assembly the harmonised amendments to the 1999 Constitution, and Gombe is among states yet to conclude deliberations on the documents.
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According to Luggerewo, who reacted in a telephone interview with our correspondent said the committee had commenced work in collating the views of the people.
He said, “We received the fifth alteration which we committed to the committee and they are on course and even yesterday they organised public hearing and after the hearing some of the participants are submitting their written memorandum.
“Others that were not able to attend have written their submissions, they will analyse and come up with the general views of our constituents and they will get ready and present their results at plenary for consideration.”
“As it is now, they have concluded public hearing yesterday (Monday) and they will continue with their work until they finalised the reports. If it is ready then the house will call for a reconsideration of the committee’s report that is the status of the fifth alteration in Gombe State.”
Commenting on the deadline for the harmonisation and submission of the report, the Speaker added, “We don’t have any deadline, you can ask any other assembly if they have deadline. We are only interested in doing the needful before the electioneering starts that is why we are working hard to ensure we tackle this assignment before the campaign activities.”
However, in a post obtained by our correspondent, the members’ claimed that the speaker’s decision would negate the spirit of the assembly as the conscience of the people, stressing that as lawmakers that they are responsible for making the voices of their constituents count.
The members claimed, “However, notwithstanding the preponderance of opinions in support of these, the body language of the Leadership of the House is suspect, one is afraid as it happened in the past, the Speaker appears reluctant to convene sitting for Gombe State House of Assembly to participate in this laudable process.”
While urging other members to indicate their resolve to be part of the process, they added that the exercise was the primary responsibility of lawmakers.
“Dear Colleagues, you are aware that the dateline for submission by all State Houses of Assembly is Thursday 15 September, 2022. We have it on good authority that the Speaker doesn’t want to call for sitting for us to exercise this crucial and historic mandate of ours, by allowing the date pass without us participating,” the lawmakers added.
